An ethnobotanical survey of antidiabetic medicinal plants used by the Bodo tribe of Kokrajhar district, Assam

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) belongs to the group of diseases causing major health problems in India and world at large. Natural products including medicinal plants are known to treat various diseases worldwide since ancient times. It is well known that plants are a great source of bioactive compounds having tremendous medicinal properties and can be used to discover plant-based drugs with lesser side effects. A survey was carried out among the Bodo community of Kokrajhar district of Assam to explore the traditional knowledge on medicinal plants against diabetes using semi-structured interviews among the local healers and elderly people. A total of 54 informants were interviewed in a face-to-face manner following readymade questionnaire, of which 15 healers were known to have knowledge regarding antidiabetic medicinal plants. A total of 37 medicinal plants, belonging to 24 families and 33 genera were found to be used by traditional healers of Kokrajhar district to cure diabetes. The mostly cited plant was found to be <em>Hodgsonia heteroclita </em>(Roxb.) followed by <em>Andrographis paniculata </em>(Burm. f.) Nees. Out of the 24 families, Apocynaceae was found to be the most popular plant family with four numbers of plants.