2017, Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part D

author(s)
Tanben Rahman, Priyanka Rani Roy, Najmun Nahar Chhanda, Syeda Seraj and Mohammed Rahmatullah

abstract
Folk medicine is perhaps the most common form of traditional medicinal practices in Bangladesh for anybody can practice it without requiring formal training or registration. As such, practices of folk medicinal practitioners (FMPs) can be varied and can range from use of plants, animals and minerals to wearing amulets and uttering incantations for disease treatment. However, plants are most commonly used by FMPs and selection of plants for treatment of a particular disease can vary widely among FMPs. Thus documentation of the plants used by as many FMPs as possible is important for this documentation can help in scientific researches on any given plant leading to new drug discoveries. The objective of this study was to document the medicinal plants and formulations used by a FMP in Noakhali district, Bangladesh, who had a degree in Ayurveda (the traditional medicinal practice of the Indian subcontinent) but described himself as a FMP. The FMP used a total of 25 plants distributed into 17 families in his formulations. There were two interesting features in the FMPs formulations. First, the same plant or plant parts from the same plant was used to treat multiple diseases suggesting that the FMP was knowledgeable about different medicinal properties of different plant parts from the same plant. Second, the FMP was aware and described the toxicities due to over-dosage of some of his preparations and further advised when to avoid the formulations. Taken together, the formulations of this particular FMP represent a combination of two traditional medicinal systems, namely Ayurveda and folk medicine and so can be of interest to scientists searching for new medications.