Medicinal knowledge system of tribals of Nandurbar district, Maharashtra

Ethnobotanists, all over the world, have been actively working to collect, document and conserve the indigenous medicinal plants. In the last two decades, many reports on medicinal plants have been published from the states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Northeastern hill states and Orissa, owing to large tribal population of the regions. Voluminous work on tribal medicine has also been published, in which medicinal plants without giving details of preparation of medicine have been described. The knowledge of traditional herbal medicine is very important for the people who generate it. While the rural house holds remedies can be obtained easily, the medicinal plant knowledge of tribals living in forests and hill areas is not available so easily. For this reason, the ethnomedicinal documentation of tribal health system will be of great advantage to our biochemists, pharmacists and biotechnologists to develop potential medicine for the treatment of several dreaded diseases. Eighty per cent of the rural population still depends on herbal/tribal medicine for their treatment. Maharashtra being the fifth largest tribal populated state, 47 tribal communities reside in hilly regions of the state. Western Ghats and Satpura hill ranges provide natural inhabitation for these tribals. While much of the ethnobotanical work reported from this state was from western Ghats, the Satpura hill ranges remained mostly unexplored. The Satpuras in Maharashtra extend across Dhule and Nandurbar districts. Of these, Nandurbar district comprises more tribal population and two of its six talukas (Tahsils), viz. Dhadgaon and Akkalkuwa are found on Satpura hills. As much as 80% of the population of these talukas is tribal. The prominent tribes inhabiting these tropical dry deciduous forests are Bhil, Pawara, Kokani, Mavchi, Gavit and Dhanka. Usually, tribal community has the knowledge of medicinal and other uses of the plants growing in the forests; tribal doctors (Vaidu, Maharaj or Bhagat) specifically know the exact preparation of the medicine and its administration to the patients. In the present paper, herbal medicine preparations for curing some prominent health disorders by the tribal Vaidus in Nandurbar district have been enumerated.