A report on ethnomedicinal plants used for the treatment of Rheumatoid arthritis by the tea tribes of Morigaon district of Assam, India

Abstract

The present study deals with the documentation of ethnomedicinal plants used against rheumatoid arthritis by the tea tribe community of Morigaon district of Assam. The tea tribes of the district still rely on herbal remedies for curing rheumatoid arthritis. To document the plant species used by tea tribes against rheumatoid arthritis, frequent study field surveys were conducted in different places of the district. A semi-structured questionnaire on traditional knowledge was used to elicit information from the concerned tribe of the study area. The documented data was evaluated using quantitative ethnobotanical indices like Use Value (UV) and Fidelity Level Percentage (FL %). From the study, a total of 33 plants belonging to 32 genera under 24 families were documented. The data was evaluated using quantitative ethnobotanical indices like Use Value and Fidelity Level Percentage. Five species were found having the highest use value and four species showed fidelity levels of 100 %. Further research is required to investigate the pharmacological effects and the chemical constituents present in the plant species that could be the basis for developing some novel product in the future.