ETHNOMEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY MALAYALI TRIBALS IN YERCAUD HILLS, SALEM DISTRICT, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

The present study highlights the importance of some medicinal plants in the health care system of Malayali tribal community of Yercaud Hills, Salem district, Tamil Nadu, India. Ethnomedicinal information was collected from malayali tribes through personal interviews and group discussions with 8 randomly selected informants. Use value (UV), fidelity level (FL) and Informant Consensus factor (ICF) were determined. During the data collection 20 species distributed in 16 families for treating 44 different ailments. Ethnomedicinal plants like Abrus pulchellus , Wall, Andrographis paniculata , Wall.ex.Nees, Asclepias curassavica , L, Asparagus racemosus , Wild, Azadirachta indica , A. Juss, Cassia fistula , Linn, Centella asiatica , Urb, Corallocarpus epigaeus , Hook.f, Curculigo orchioides , Gaertn, Emblica officinalis , Gaerth, Enicostemma littirale , Blume, Hemidesmus indicus , R. Br, Holarrhena pubescens (Buch.Ham.) Wall.ex.G.Don, Leucas aspera , Spreng, Mimosa pudica , Linn, Myrica esculenta , Buch. Ham, Pergularia daemia (Forsk.) chiov, Terminalia bellerica , Roxb, Terminalia chebula , Retz and Toddalia asiatica , Lamk were documented during the study. UV of the encountered plant species ranged from 0.38 to 1.13. The uppermost FCI value is reported for Ejaculation of semen and Bone fracture. In the present investigation, the FL varied from 50 to 100%.


INTRODUCTION
India is one of the 17 th mega biodiversity countries of the world which resides a gargantuan diversity of plants, animals and microbes. When peoples were appearing on this earth has been crucial with the plant kingdom for their day today needs such as food, medicine, clothing, shelter and other requirements. Now days in many developing countries peoples are take modern medicine for their illnesses, but in many rural areas indigenous medicine based folk remedies has been played an important role in the health care system. In India the indigenous people are exercise a divergence of herbals for impressive curing of various diseases [1,-2] and it is known that India has the second largest tribal population in the world after Africa [3]. Today traditional medicine and ethnobotanical information play an important role in scientific research and conservation programs in different parts of the world [4].
Eastern Ghats ecosystem contains more than 2500 species of angiosperms which compose about 13 % of the flowering plants in India [5]. Yercaud hills is the major point in the Eastern Ghats, located in the forest types range from evergreen to moist deciduous with the altitude of 1515 meters (4970 Ft). The temperature ranges from 13 0 C to 29 0 C on the peaks and 25 0 C to 40 0 C at the foot hills. The average annual rainfall is around 1500 mm -1750 mm [6]. The soil is deep and non-calcareoces [7]. Malayali tribals are typically hill tribals present in the foot hills of Yercaud hills. The main aim of the present study is highlights the importance of some medicinal plants in the health care system of Malayali tribals community of Yercaud Hills.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Frequent field surveys were carried out in Yercaud hills in different seasons during 2014 -2016. Interview and data gathering methods were followed by Schultes [8] and Jain [9]; Jain and Rao [10]. The voucher specimens were collected and identified by referring to standard floras [11,12].

Data analysis 2.1.1. Use Value (UV)
The relative importance of each species used in the study area was quantitatively evaluated following the method developed by Phillips and Gentry [13,14]. UV = ∑U/ N, Where, UV is the use value of species; U is the number of use reports cited for a particular species and n is the total number of informants interviewed. In general, UV is high, if there are more use report citations (When there are more uses and all the informants agree with it) for a given species and low when there are few reports.

Informant consensus factor (ICF)
Informant consensus factor (ICF) was calculated to evaluate if there was a consensus in the knowledge of plants used in the ailment group between healers in the study area. The ICF was calculated using the following formula [15]. ICF = Nur -Nt/Nur-1 where Nur refers to the number of use reports for a particular ailment category and Nt refers for a particular ailment category by all informants.

Fidelity level (FL)
The fidelity level (FL), the percentage of informants claiming the use of a certain plants for the same major purpose, was calculated according to the following formula [16]. FL (%) = Np / N × 100. Where Np is the number of informants that calming a use of a plant species to treat particular diseases and N is the number of informants that use the plants as a medicine to treat any given disease.

Utilization of plant species as traditional medicine by Malayali tribes in Yercaud Hills
The investigation revealed that the traditional healers of Yercaud hills used 20 species of plants encompassing to 16 families to treat 44 different types of ailments. Most of the recorded medicinal herbs are harvested from natural environment in the different location of the yercaud hills by traditional healers. The day before they collect the plants, they pray to the plant and tie a thread that has been dipped in turmeric around the plant. The next day, they hymn a mantra before harvesting. The reported twenty important medicinal herbs in the present survey were arranged in alphabetical order according to their botanical name. The botanical name of each plant is followed by the local name, family and ethnomedicinal uses are listed in the Table 1.
During the survey we noted single plant may use for curing many ailments such as Abrus pulchellus is used to treat female infertility, easy delivery and rashes, Andrographis paniculata is used to treat centipede bite, scorpion sting, snake bite, diabetes, fever, small pox and cure blister. Asclepias curassavia used for curing migraine pain, cycosis, normal delivery, lumbago, dysentery and excessive bleeding after delivery. Asparagus racemous used for increase the sperms count, epididymitis and diabetes. Azadirachta indica recommended for female infertility, snake bite, mosaic and small pox, Cassia fistula used for curing snake bite, chest pain, diabetes and blister, Centella asiatica used for body pain, diabetes, menstrual disorder, increase sexual capacity and sperm count, female infertility, hemorrhoids, Corallocarpus epigaeus is used for treating antidote for beetle bite, centipede bite, scorpion sting and snake bite, Curculigo orchioides oral administration of rhizome powder can used for curing diabetes, neurotic problems, ejaculation of semen, epididymitis, increase sperm count, erysipelas and kidney stone, Emblica officinalis used to cure dental ache, whoop cough, diabetes, liver problem and reduces the weight, Enicostemma littorale to treat the body pain, fever, beetle bite, centipede bite, snake bite, chest pain, dymenorrhoea and blister, Hemidesmus indicus is consumed for curing constipation, abdominal pain, kidney stone, chest pain and snake bite, bark of Holarrhena pubescens administer orally to cure hemorrhoids, trismus and bone fracture, Leucas aspera Oral administration to cure paralysis, migraine pain, rashes, chest pain ear ache. Mimosa pudica consumed to cure wound, beetle bite, female infertility, epididymitis and hemorrhoids. Myrica esculenta Oral administration of bark powder good for bone fracture, diabetes, female infertility and over bleeding during menstruation period. Consumption of leaves of Pergularia daemia to cure body pain, snake bite, irregular menstruation, normal delivery and lumbago. Fruit powder of Terminalia bellerica administers orally to cure diabetes, dysentery, colitis and reduce the Weight. Oral administration of fruit powder of Terminalia chebula used to treat diabetes, colitis, dysentery, hemorrhoids, dental ache, chest pain, whoop cough and reduce weight and Toddalia asiatica is used to cure snake bite, centipede bite, chest pain, cold, erysipelas leprosy.

Data analysis
The present work was the first ever study to record quantitative data of the medicinal flora of the region, including Use Value, Informant Consensus Factor and Fidelity Level.

Use Value (UV)
As indicated in Corallocarpus epigaeus (0.5) and Cassia fistula (0.5). It was also observed that the highest use values were due to the high number of use reports in the study area.

Informant Consensus Factor
The inhabitants used medicinal plants in the treatment of 44 different types of ailments. The important disorders were Ejaculation of semen, Bone fracture, snake bite, Chest pain, Female infertility, skin diseases, diabetes, Menstrual disorder, Hemorrhoids, Body pain and sperm count. To determine the informant consensus factor (FCI), all the reported ailments were first grouped into 11 different disease categories on the basis of their use reports ( Table 3).
The uppermost FCI value is reported for Ejaculation of semen and Bone fracture (1), followed by Snake bite (0.86), chest pain (0.8), female infertility and skin diseases (0.75), Diabetes (0.71), Menstrual disorder and Hemorrhoids (0.66), Body pain and sperm count (0.5). These results show that Ejaculation of semen and Bone fracture were especially common in the study area.

CONCLUSION
The study depicts Salem district of Tamil Nadu revealed in the field of folk medicine. The survey of the report includes both common and serious health issues such as Diabetes, Body pain, snake bite, Skin diseases and Mensural disorders Therefore, documentation of traditional knowledge is the only way out to preserve the knowledge base protect the medicinal plants resources endemic to this area. Clinical study to prove the validity of the recorded treatments could spread indigenous herbal knowledge worldwide; hence, action should be taken to conserve herbal knowledge, as well as the medicinal plants.