Ethnomedicinal Plants Used in Gujarat For the Treatment of Various Diseases

Scientific literature of this field has grown quickly as a result of increased research activity in the areas of discovery, isolation, application, and examinations of the efficacy of herbal medicines. Numerous prestigious journals, especially those in the field of Integrative and Complementary Medicine, publish articles on this topic with high levels of scholarly interest (I&C Medicine). Any study field should periodically be viewed from a wider angle, based on pertinent publications, their quantitative and qualitative indicators, and the dominating trends within the field. Such summaries are crucial for enhancing researchers' publishing productivity, modifying journal editorial policies, and assisting researchers in better understanding the current state of affairs in the relevant field in order to plan their future research, which is typically conceived as an expansion of prior work in the field. One of the fundamental requirements for raising the standard of research in this field is the requirement for such periodic reviews of the literature in ethnopharmacology and herbal medicine (Albuquerque and Hanazaki, 2009).

There are several written reports from Asia attesting to the therapeutic value of Himalayan plants. The Vedas provide evidence of perhaps the first recorded use of herbal plants. The oldest known collection of human knowledge was created between 4500 and 600 B.C., and it consists of 67 plant species. Ayurveda, a school of traditional medicine that is popular in India and Nepal, offers additional information regarding the therapeutic use of substances other than herbal medicines (Manabdhar, 1980). However, only a small portion of the plant species on Earth (250,000–500,000) have been investigated phytochemically or studied for their pharmacological properties, aside from ethnobotanical/ethnomedicinal research that has documented the pharmacological properties of plants and random screenings of a number of species for their biological activities (Rates, 2001). The use of medicinal plants has gained widespread attention and has implications for global health. The upkeep of the global healthcare system for the large population has been greatly aided by herbal medicine (Akerele, 1988). This is significantly improved in less developed or developing nations, where the use of traditional medicine was halted throughout history. Both emerging and developed nations have increased their understanding of the medicinal properties of plants (WHO, 1998). When the eighteenth century first began, more than 80% of medicine was Particularly following the scientific revolution, the field of herbal medicine has influenced the development of the pharmaceutical business, where synthetic medications are now readily available (Shinwari and Qaiser, 2011). Due to the fact that plants or their derivatives are regarded as safe and effective medications with minimal side effects and low cost (Chalannavar at el., 2013), medicinal plants are used more frequently in the treatment of diseases. The knowledge of alternative medicine based on the use of plants in treatment represents an inheritance passed from generation to generation over centuries, either verbally or in writing, keeping in mind that the traditional inheritance may be facing extinction if it is not transmitted to the next generation and is still limited to the former only (Schulze, 2017). This review shows that numerous plant species are crucial to regional healing practices and that traditional medical knowledge is still practiced and has a big impact on tribals residing in Gujarat. The documenting of this extensive body of traditional ethno-medical knowledge has given us new knowledge that will not only help to recognize this previously unrecognized knowledge but may also open up new directions for pharmacological research to advance treatment for a variety of illnesses. The current review was conducted to gather information about the plants used by people of Gujarat in traditional medicine, such as to highlight the description of medicinal plants including botanical name, common name, disease and the area in which it is utilized.

Result and Discussion

The present survey reported 65 diseases which are being cured by many plant species of various localities of Gujarat belonging to different families. The most cured disease of all is fever and skin disease which are being cured by 17 plant species. Followed by dysentery, abdominal disease and rheumatoid arthritis which are cured by 15 different plant species. The least plant species curing plants reported were for diseases such as Beri-Beri, tetanus, night blindness, filariasis, gonorrhea, leprosy, migraine, mumps etc. (Patel and Patel, 2013).

Table: 1 List Ethnomedicinal plant species which is used for different types of disease