TRADITIONAL USE OF MEDICINAL PLANT BY MALAYALI TRIBE IN YERCAUD HILL, EATERN GHATS, SALEM DISTRICT, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

An ethnobotanical survey was conducted in 10 villages of Yercaud Hills, Salem district, Tamil Nadu among the Malayali tribals by personal interviews and field visits along with the informants during November 2012 – May 2014. Informants were selected based on their experience and knowledge on medicinal plants. From each village one person was selected. Present study focused on local inhabitants who used traditional resources for self-medication. A total number of 30 plant species belongs to 30 genera and 22 families have been reported for their use in treat ailments such as leprosy, snake bite, beetle bite, apoplexy, body pain, stomach, rashes, swelling, cataract, worm infection, trismus, mental disorders,menorrhea, dysentery, tumor and sprain. Botanical name, vernacular name, parts used, name of diseases against which the plants used, mode of preparation and administration for each recipes are discussed. The result of this study showed that local people in this study area still depend on medicinal plants and these plants play decisive role in primary health care system.


INTRODUCTION
Plants are the basis of life on earth, supplying fresh oxygen and play an important role to people's livelihood. Worldwide 2,48,000 seed plants are reported and more than 50,000 of them are used for medicinal purposes.The use of plants from different plant parts performs a great role particularly in the places where they lack modern health facilities/clinics/hospitals. India is the largest country, have the richest arrays of registered and relatively well known medicinal plants (1). Eastern Ghats are discontinuous range of mountain set along Eastern coast, starting at West Bangal, and pass through states like Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Eastern Ghats holds the rich floral system with more medicinal plants. The land is also inhabited by quite a few tribes which include Savara, Jatapa, Dora, Gadapa, Khond, Manne Dora and Mukha Dora. These indigenous people have their own unique cultural heritage. These people follow the age old customs and traditions. They are still dependent on the forest produce and hunting for their livelihood. These tribes have good knowledge about geography of the region and its produce and thereby make a good use of its medicinal plants.
The study area Yercaud hills is the major point in the Eastern Ghats, located with the forest types range from evergreen to moist deciduous. Malayali tribals are typically hill tribals present in the foot hills of Yercaud hills. Malayali simply means a hill person an appellation distinguishing them from the people of plains. In physical appearance they scarcely differ from the people of plains. They speak Tamil dialect of their own. They are supposed to be descendants of Kanchipuram vellalar. They appear to have migrated from Kanchipuram (a town near Chennai, Tamil Nadu) between seventh and eleventh centuries. The tribals are mostly working as casual laborers in coffee estates. They are also cultivating the food grains, fruits and vegetable (2).

Study Area
The study was conducted at Yercaud Hills range of the Eastern Ghats situated in Salem district of Tamil Nadu. The Hill range is situated at an altitude of 1515 meters (4970 ft) above. The most popular Servarayan temple is situated at 5,236 feet in Yercaud Hills. The geographical position of the study area is 11 0 C 45 ' 56" N latitude and 78 0 C 17 ' 55" E longitude. 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.

Study Pattern and Period
Study was conducted during November 2012 -May 2014 to design the importance of traditional medicine from plants for curing various ailments.

Method of data collection
Ethnomedicinal data were collected through general conversations with the informants. Personal interviews were used to obtain the information of medicinal plants with their local names, parts used, mode of preparation (i.e., decoction, paste, powder and juice) and form of usage either fresh or dried and mixtures of other plants used as ingredients. The recipes on the mode of preparation of ethno-herbal products along with dosage, application and duration were also gathered. The data gathered were cross verified by repeated queries with different local herbalists in different seasons (3). A totalnumber of 10 traditional healers comprising of 6 males and 4 females were identified between the ages of 35 and 80. They were selected based on their knowledge of medicinal plants. Informants were asked to come to field and show the plants with local names. The species mentioned by the informants were identified taxonomically for which the voucher specimens were referred with standard floras (4,5).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
During the course of investigation, 10 villages viz., Mundakampadi, Muluvi, Karadiyur, Pattipadi, Velur, Jernakaadu, Taalur, Vellakadai, Puliyur and Periakadu were visited. More reliable informants who had rich experience and practical knowledge of the plants used in the traditional system of medicine were selected. These informants were considered as collaborators in ethnobotanical research thus giving equal participation in collection of information.
During the investigation 30 ethnomedicinal plant species distributed in 30genera and 22 families were recorded. These plants were used to cure different ailments such as leprosy, snake bite, beetle bite, apoplexy, body pain, stomach, rashes, swelling, cataract, worm infection, trismus, mental disorders,menorrhea, dysentery, tumor and sprain (Table. 1). Among 30 plant species Tree forms (11 species) were found to be commonly used followed by shrub (7 species), climber (6 species), herb (5 species) and undershrub species (1 species each) ( Figure 1). Malayali tribes seldom try to collect parasite from other trees for their medicinal requirement, because they have so many herbal drugs available around their shelters.
The most dominant plant parts used were bark and leave (8 species each), root (5 species), whole plant parts and rhizome (3 species each), seeds (2 species) and fruit (1 species) were documented ( Figure 2). Many indigenous communities throughout the world also mostly utilize leaves for the preparation of herbal medicines(5-10). The reason why leaves are used mostly is that they are collected very easily than underground parts, flowers, fruits etc. (11).
Medicines were prepared in the form of powder, paste and juice. Some plants were used as individuals and also combination with other plants. Internal uses (62.5%) were predomination over external uses (31.25%). Internal consumption was done for body pain, menorrhoea, dysentery, rashes, snake bite, stomach pain, swelling, trismus and worm infection and external applications are done for apoplexy, beetle bite, leprosy, sprain and tumor. For external use, the most important methods used direct application of paste or with oil. Most of the medicines were given orally which were also suggested by some other researchers in the world (12)(13)(14)(15)(16) According to some studies, we found similarity with many species of plants which cure various types of ailments that were recognized by some other tribal community and Malayali tribes in Tamil Nadu. Rhinacanthus nasuta (7),Azadirachta indica (18,19),Alangium salvifolium (20) and Corallocarpus epigaeus (21,22) were repute as a remedy for snakebite and we also get the similar result in our data collection. Plants which are used in repetitive manner in any ailment could be more likely to have biologically active compound (13). Few of the plants reported in this study are good evidence of effectiveness and were scientifically validated as significant pharmacological agent. For example, the phytochemical analysis of leaves extract of Rhinacanthus nasuta revealed the presence of various components such as alkaloids, anthraquinones, Triterpenoids, carbohydrates, flavonoids, saponins, phytosterols and Polyphenols. The GCMS analysis also showed the presence of two major components such as alkaloid and poly-phenolic compound (23) isolated from Rhinacanthus nasuta may responsible for its pharmacological activities, Corallocarpus epigaeus plant extract is capable of inhibiting the elevation of blood glucose level (24) and Ethanol Extract of Alangium salviflouim exhibited significant antidiabetic, antiinflammatory, anticonvulsant and analgesic activities which might be due to the bioactive compounds (25).

CONCLUSION
The present investigation revealed that medicinal plants till play a vital role in the primary health care of the people. Many people in the studied part of Yercaud hills is till continue to depend on medicinal plants, at least for the treatment of apoplexy, beetle bite, body pain, cataract, dysentery, leprosy, menorrhea, mental disorders, rashes, snake bite, sprain, stomach pain, swelling, trismus, tumor and worm infection.The information gathered from tribals is useful for the further research in the field of ethnobotany, taxonomy. This study offers a model for studying the relationship between plants and people and traditional remedies of great therapeutic importance. The value of using ethnobotanical information is to initiate drug discovery efforts. This study also gathered a broad spectrum of information concerning medicinal plants used by tribals.