7. SURVEY ON ETHNOMEDICINAL PLANTS OF NALLAMALLA FOREST IN PRAKASAM DISTRICT, ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA by P. BRAHMAM1, K. SOMAIAH2, P.V.V. SATISH3, K. SUNITA4 AND JEEVAN MANI BABU5

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been serving as a chief source of new pharmaceutical products and relatively inexpensive preparatory materials for the manufacture of some very well liked drugs. For the data collection, a survey was conducted about cultural medicinal plants used by traditional healers and tribal people of Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh during June 2014 to January 2015.The traditional healers in the study area were interviewed and information on medicinal plants was collected. The present survey unveiled use of 100 medicinal plants distributed in 93 genera belonging to 42families.The documented medicinal plants were mostly used to cure Diabetes, asthma, poisonous bites, stomachache, dysentery, throat infections, skin diseases, pains, arthritis, paralysis, Snake bite, diarrhoea and fever etc. The most prominent family was Fabaceae with 23 species followed by Apocynaceae with 8, Malvaceae with 6, Rutaceae with 6 species, Euphorbiaceae with 5 species and the remaining families with 4 or 3 or 2 plants or sometimes with a single plant. The people have been using various parts of plant to cure diseases in different forms like paste, powder, decoction and juice with or without added ingredients like honey, milk, butter milk, ghee, sugar, turmeric, salt, castor oil, coconut oil, pepper and water. This study showed that many people in the study areas of Prakasam district still continue to depend on cultural medicinal plants at least for the treatment of initial health care. Thus the furnished valuable cultural medicinal plant information will be transferred to younger generations.
KEY WORD: Medicinal plants, Traditional healers, Pharmaceutical value, Tribal areas.