Investigation of Medicinal Plants Used to Treat Malaria by the Ethnic People of Purulia District, West Bengal, India

Background: One of the most prevalent serious medical issues worldwide is Malaria. It is caused by different Plasmodium sp. and can infect people by the bite of a female Anopheles sp. mosquito. It is important to explore for alternative drug of the Malaria treatment, particularly those made from plants, because the majority of endemic areas have Plasmodium resistance to the malarial drugs used today. Purulia is the western district of West Bengal. It lies between 22◦60ʹ and 23◦50ʹ north latitude and 85◦76ʹ and 86◦65ʹ east latitude. Almost eleven ethnic groups (Bhumij, Birhor, Gond, Kharia, Kharwar, Kurmi, Lodha, Malpaharya, Munda Oraon, Santal) present in this district. Objectives: This study main aims to record medicinal plants used to treat Malaria by the ethnic people of Purulia district, West Bengal, India. Materials and Methods: Semi-structured questionnaires, interviews with traditional ethnic people and focused group discussions were used to gather ethnobotanical data of antimalarial plants. Results: The 41 ethnomedicinal plants utilized by the local herbal healers to treat Malaria in the Purulia district of West Bengal, India and belonging to 25 families were documented. Conclusion: Traditional healers are the main source of knowledge on medicinal plants. This knowledge has been transmitted orally from one generation to the next generation. The present documentation is a preliminary attempt to pave the path for developing a digitized database in the future.