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Ethnobotanical
Leaflets 10: 198-207. 2006. Ethno-Medico-Botanical Studies From Rayalaseema Region Of Dowlathabad
Muralidhara Rao ,* U.V.U.Bhaskara Rao,#
and G.Sudharshanam# *Natural Products Research Division Department of Biotechnology #Department
of Botany Tirupati,A.P.INDIA Issued
ABSTRACT
This paper deals with Ethno- Medico botanical
Studies of Rayalaseema Region, INTRODUCTION Ralayaseema
region lies between 120 411 and 160 211
N and 170 451 and 810 11 E. The
area bounded on the south by Tamilnadu state on the Tirumala
hills which are popularly known as the seven hills Lord Sri Venkateswara are
geographically located between 790 191 to 700
231 East longitude and 130 371 to 130
431 North latitude. Quite interesting in the report of occurrence
of seven endemic taxa on Tirumala hills. Climatically
the region is characterized by a dry and agreeable climate. The climate is
semi-arid and salubrious with many sunny days during the year. There
are no perennial rivers and most of the rivers in this region remain dry for
a major art of the year. One of the rivers flowing in this region are the Papaghni, Pincha, Penna, Koundinya, Palar, Ponnei,
Arani, Bahuda, Kalyani, Swarnamukhi and Thungabhadra. The main crops in this
region are the food crops such as Paddy, Jowar, Bajra and Ragi and commercial
crops like Sugarcane, Groundnut and Cotton. All thedry land crops such as
Groundnt, Jowar, Redgram, Blackgram etc., depend on the monsoons. The
types of vegetation in Rayalaseema are determined by climatic, edaphic and
biotic factors coupled with altitude whenever it is high. The total area
under forest is about 22.8% of the total Rayalseema land area. In Kadapa
District 30% of the land area is covered by forest. In Ananthapur District
only 10.09% is the forest area. Kurnool District has 28.4% of forest in the
total land area. Chittoor District has 30.3% of forests in total area. The
vegetation of the area under study can be classified into Dry deciduous type,
Moist deciduous, Hardwikia binata type, Thorny scrubs type and Dry
evergreen forest. The
Rayalaseema region consists of about 9.6 million of population out of which
0.238 millions belong to tribal communities. There are 18 scheduled tribes in
Rayalaseema comprising 2.48% of the total population. For the present study
the predominant tribes of Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh viz., the
Chenchus, the Yanadis, the Yerukulas and the Sugalis are selected. The tribes
belong to the protoaustraloid racial stock and speak dialects of
the Dravidian family. METHODOLOGY The
Ethnobotanical survey was carried out in Rayalaseema region during 1998-2004.
The date was collected after discussion with tribal physicians (Natu
Vaidyas), aged tribals and further confirmed with experienced herbalists. The
specimens are preserved in the herbarium of Department of Botany, RESULTS Ethnic communities mostly depend on forest products for
their livelihood. The
tribal inhabitants from
Rayalaseema area collect different
non- timber forest products based on their ethnobotanical knowledge pass from
their ancient culture and ethnic practices. Many of the tribals depend
for their economy mainly on forest products. These are inter-connected with their habits
such as gathering of tubers, medicinal herbs, animal and mineral based
products. However, due to urbanization and tremendous increase in population
there is an urgent need to conserve these ethno-botanical and non- timber
forest products for human welfare. The Ethno-medicinal plants are classified in
32 groups based on their uses.The total 240 species of medicinal plants are
enumerated with their uses. The dominant families are Fabaceae (15),
Euphorbiaceae (11)Verbenaceae (11) Acanthaceae (10)
Rubiaceae (9) Combretaceae (8) Asclepiadaceae (7) species. The
diseases wise categorization, ailments for the treatment of which a large
number of medicinal plants are used are antidotes (10), stomach-ache (11),
jaundice (4), diarrohoea (7), skin diseases (21), ear-ache (9), dysentery
(13), wounds (21), boils (11), ulcers (3), fevers (13), rheumatism (6),
epilepsy (2), head-ache (11), blood motions (1), tooth-ache (10), asthma (5),
psoriasis (1), cold (9), fractures (8), blisters (7), indigestion (2), cough
(8), lice eradication (4), eczema (2), anthelmintic (3), constipation (6),
stomach disorders (2), menstrual problems (4), leucoderma (5), intestinal
worms (4), cuts (8), muscle pains (5), urinary disorders (3), chest pain (1),
sores (3), hair tonic (7), bronchitis (4), body-ache (1), joint pains (1),
diabetes (3), lactogogue (1), piles (3), helminthiasis (2), elephantiasis
(1), vermifuge (1), kidneys (1), throat pain (1), fissures (1), swellings
(1), hydrophobia (1), abdominal pains (1), gastric troubles (1), chicken pox
(1), intoxication (1). NON-TIMBER Table 1. Medicinal
Plants.
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