Ethnomedicinal Plants Used by Santhal Community of India

Abstract

A lot of health problems are observed worldwide; among them, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is more serious. Urgent formulations of antimicrobial agents from natural sources and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (ITK) are needed. The ITK belongs to different tribal communities for their day-to-day traditional practices. Those communities are storehouses of traditional therapeutic values that need to be explored. Santhal, a tribal community in India and more developed has sound knowledge of forest foods, forest products, sustainable agriculture, and medicinal plants. They use the local plants as food, nutraceuticals, medicinal agents, and as a source of livelihood, which should be documented for the formulation of new antimicrobial agents to mitigate the global health problems. Therefore, in the present study, the Santhal community was selected and enumerated 120 medicinal plants along with their uses and local names used by them. The active constituents of 31 medicinal plants and their pharmacological activities are also documented. 34 nutraceuticals and 10 economically important plants were enumerated through a field survey and presented. Since less documentation is available on plants used by the Santhal community, the present study focuses on their medicinal uses, pharmacological activities, and their nutraceutical potential to provide sources of future medicinal foods and antimicrobial agents to cope with the global health problems.

Keywords

antimicrobial resistance / medicinal agents / tribal communities

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