Traditional hepatoprotective herbal medicine of Koch tribe in the South-West Garo hills district, Meghalaya

Abstract

Field survey made in 24 villages of the South-West Garo Hills district, Meghalaya, inhabited mainly by the Koch community helped to gather ethnobotanical information concerning 25 medicinal plant species belonging to 24 Angiospermic and 1 Pteridophytic genus under 22 different families that are used as traditional hepatoprotective herbal medicine. Among the different plant parts prescribed for hepatoprotection, fruits are the most frequently used plant part (25%), followed by leaves (21.42%) and then followed by stems, rhizomes, roots and the whole plant which had equal applications (10.71%). Barks (7.14%) and cloves (3.57%) of the medicinal plants were relatively less frequently prescribed plant part for the purpose of hepatoprotection. Regarding the life form of the reported medicinal plants prescribed by the traditional healers, herbs (11 species) were most frequently used, followed by trees (7 species), climbers (3 species), shrubs (2 species) and epiphytes (2 species). All plant parts tested positive for alkaloids.