Ethnobotanical survey of Irular tribes in Pillur valley, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu (India)

Abstract

An ethnobotanical survey was conducted to secure information available on the use of medicinal plants by the Irular tribes inhabiting Pillar Valley, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu (India) during March 2011 to May 2013. Ethno medicinal information was gathered through interviews and group discussions with 7 randomly selected informants and field trips. Informant consensus factor (ICF) and Use Value (UV) were determined. The study revealed an extensive use of 85 species distributed in 39 families for treating more than 65 ailments. These ailments were grouped in to a total of 14 categories. Herbs were the most commonly used. More than half of the formulations were prepared from leaves. The results of the ICF analysis showed that there was a great consensus in the use of plants for treatment of various ailments, least agreement was witnessed for animal/poisonous bite (PB) and Ear, nose, throat (ENT) category and a high agreement was seen for liver problems (LP) and cooling agent (CA). A total of 33 species were found to have use value of at least 1 or above. This study emphasized the importance of plant remedies still being utilized by the Irular community residing in Pillar Valley, Coimbatore, and Tamil Nadu. Unfortunately, the traditional healers are decreasing sharply in the study area. Nevertheless, many of the remedies reported here are new claims with high use values, stressing the urgent need for in-depth future studies of many unnoticed cultures, as the knowledge once lost will be lost forever.