Traditional phytoremedies for the treatment of vitiligo in Udhampur, J&K, India

Abstract

The present study was conducted in Udhampur district of J&K, India to document the traditional knowledge regarding the treatment of vitiligo. Information was collected through questionnaires and interviews from 83 informants. Use–value (UV) and disease consensus index (DCI) were calculated to assess plant knowledge and the level of agreement for a remedy, respectively. A total of 65 plants from 42 families and 61 genera were reported by the informants. The most number of plants used for curing vitiligo belonged to families Asteraceae, Rutaceae, Fabaceae and Lamiaceae. Invariably, all these families are rich source of psoralen used in photochemotherapy of skin disorders. The most used life–form were herbs (49.2%) and trees (36.9%) easily accessible to the patient from the nearby wild (58.5%). The prominently used (high DCI) plants for curing vitiligo were Psoralea corylifolia L., Phyllanthus emblica L., Ficus carica L., and Acacia catechu (L.f.) Willd. As psoralen is the main component present in most of these species, appropriate studies may further be carried out to verify the presence of psoralen and other phytochemicals present in other species used for curing vitiligo.