Ethnobotanical investigation of the muthuvan tribe’s medicinal plant usage in Edavanna Panchayath, Malappuram district, Kerala

Abstract

Ethnobotanical studies are always in forefront in revealing the intimate association between human beings and plants. India is widely known for its immense wealth of medicinal plants and for the fact that this plant wealth has been utilized for healing diseases since ages. Tribal societies possess their own ideologies and belief systems when it comes to the usage and protection of plants.  Among many tribal communities in Kerala, Muthuvans are known for their knowledge in usage of plants for the preparation of medicine. Documentation of such knowledge is utmost important for the upcoming future. The present study is conducted with an aim to document the medicinal plants used by the Muthuvan tribe of Malappuram district, Kerala for the treatment of common ailments. Questionnaire survey, periodic field trips to the tribal area and secondary information collected from KIRTADS has been presented here. A total of 37 plants belonging to 35 genera and 20 families have been recorded along with their vernacular names, parts used, mode of preparation and administration of medicines. The commonly represented families were Fabaceae and Lamiaceae with 4 species and Asteraceae and Malvaceae with 3 species each. The current study elaborately reveals that the tribal community depends on plant wealth of Cholar Hills for the treatment of common ailments and their medicinal preparations have been effective over many years. Therefore, documentation of the knowledge possessed by the tribes is extremely important as these can be used for further studies and novel discoveries.