Ethnomedicinal studies on selected medicinal plants for treatment of asthma from Palakkad District of Kerala State

Introduction

Ethnomedicine is the study of traditional, culture-specific medical practices, beliefs, and knowledge systems used by indigenous or ethnic groups to diagnose, treat, and prevent illness. It encompasses herbal medicine, spiritual healing, and holistic approaches passed down through generations, often acting as primary healthcare for, or in addition to, modern medicine (Narayanan et al., 2018) [5] . The term ethno-medicine is recently defined as "Medical system of the primitive that has been evolved in their own cultural milieu and recognized as the method of diagnosis and treatment which are natural or not". Documentation and scientific validation of traditional claims are necessary and any give valuable clues to new drug development. Intensive field surveys among traditional practitioners for ethno-medicinal practices done time-to-time explored the wealth of traditional information for treatment of different diseases (Kabir, 2014) [3] . Most of the ancient knowledge systems have continued to survive only by oral communication from generation to generation in rural as well as in tribal communication. About 85 per cent of the rural population of India depends on wild plants for the treatment of various ailments. WHO estimates about three quarters of world population using herbs and other forms of medicines to treat various diseases using about 7500 plant species. However, with increasing modernization, rich cultural heritage and traditional knowledge is fast declining in many parts of world. Hence, an attempt has been made to document the ethno-medicinal practices by tribal community for the treatment of asthma (Thomas, 2012) [11] . Ethnomedicine studies identify over 176 plant species across 63 families, particularly in Asia, Africa, and India, for treating asthma through decoctions, powders, and pastes. Leaves and roots are the most common parts used, with notable plants including Achyranthes aspera, Alstonia scholaris, and Zingiber officinale (Prasad, 2019) [7] . Asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory system in which the airway occasionally constricts, becomes inflamed, and is lined with excessive amounts of mucus, often in response to one or more triggers. These episodes may be triggered by such things as exposure to an environmental stimulant (or allergen), cold air, warm air, moist air, exercise or exertion, or emotional stress (Amuthavalluvan, 2020) [1] . In children, the most common triggers are viral illnesses such as those that cause the common cold. This airway narrowing causes symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing (Sivarajan, 2013) [10] . The airway constriction responds to bronchodilators. Between episodes, most patients feel well but can have mild symptoms and they may remain short of breath after exercise for longer periods of time than the unaffected individual (Rahmatullah, 2012) [8] . The treatment of asthma in the modern medicine is based on the use of beta agonists, leukotriene modifiers and inhaled corticosteroids that allowed an acceptable control of the main symptoms. However, this therapy could not suppress all the symptoms although the better understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease (Yang et al., 2016) [13] .

Materials and Methods

For the present study Attappadi Hills at Palakkad district of Kerala state was selected. Attappadi is an extensive mountain valley at the headwaters of the Bhavani River nestled below the Nilgiri Hills of the Western Ghats. Attappadi reserve forest is a protected area comprising of 249 km 2 of western most part of the Attappadi Block (745 km 2 ) of Mannarghat Taluk in Palakkad district of Kerala, South India. It is a tribal abode. Irular, mudugar and kurumbar are the main tribal groups. They live in forest in closely built huts called 'Ooru' (hamlets) (Giovannini, 2017) [2] . They depend mostly on forest resources for their existence. They collect different plants and use them for various purposes including maintaining their health. They are still practicing the herbal medicines for curing fever, cough, cold, asthma, diarrhea, dysentery, diabetes mellitus, arthritis, asthma, blood pressure, bone fracture, cuts, wounds, headache, joint pain, scabies, psoriasis, dandruff, stone problem, snake bite etc (Manikandan, 2015) [4] . Ethno-medicinal information was gathered from tribals by contacting local health healers through personal interview along with informal discussion. Information of medicinal plants regarding vernacular name, part/parts used, quantity, method of preparation, cost and administration were gathered carefully at the site. The information gathered was entered in the investigators field note books. Plant specimens were collected and identified by referring to standard books such as "Guide to the Economic Plants of South India, 1959" and "Prajapat and Kumar's Agro's Dictionary of Medicinal Plants, 2005" and voucher specimens were processed methodologically as suggested by The Rapinat Herbarium and Centre for Molecular Systematic, Trichy, Tamil Nadu and preserved at the herbarium sheet. The herbarium sheet contained information such as common name and scientific name of herbal, used parts, utility of herbal, source and location etc. The prepared herbarium such as Adhatoda vasica, Eclpta alba, Ocimum sanctum, Piper nigrum, Solanum xanthocarpum and Zingerber officinale were arranged alphabetically based on the botanical name of the species (Naseef, 2018) [6] . The herbal leaves such as Ocimum sanctum, Soalnum trilobatum, Adhatoda vasica, Solanum xanthocarpum, Eclpta alba and Cynodon dactylon leaves were washed with water and shade dried for five hours. The dried ingredients such as Glycycyrrhiza glabra (dry root), Aplinia officinarum (dry root), Curcuma aromatica and Piper nigrum were ground along with dried leaves into a coarse powder by using mixie and sieved. Both powders were mixed together and the asthma powder will be stored in glass bottles and it can be used upto three months.

Results and Discussion

Based on the investigation, it was found totally 16 species of medicinal plants belonging to ten families were used to treat asthma. [12] . The formula of different medicine for the asthma with ingredients, dosage and mode of administration and cost of medicine were given in Table 3. All the herbs were collected from in and around area of Attappadi hills. During the season, the required herbs for the preparation of medicine like powder were collected in bulk quantity and they were cleaned, dried and then stored in jute covers or plastic covers for future use whereas the fresh medicinal plants which are used in the preparation of decoction were collected at the time of availability. Some times, Curcuma aromatica (Turmeric), Elettaria cardamomu (Cardamom), Piper nigrum (Pepper) and Zingerber officinale (Ginger) were purchased from local shops at Attappadi hills. In the form of herbal powders, it were prepared once in a month and stored in glass bottles where as decoction, extract, juice etc. were prepared at the time of medication only.

It can be concluded that majority of tribal population gives first preference for traditional system of medicine for treating the ailments because of their cultural rooted reasons, faith in the system, and easy and cheap availability of that system. Among the tribal community, a wealth of traditional knowledge is available for the treatment of asthma also. Existence of treatment for a large numbers of medical problems may be due to faith and conviction about the treatment process and easy approachability to this kind of treatment. Pharmaceutical researches acknowledge that screening plants on the basis of information derived from traditional knowledge saves time and resources. Therefore, detailed studies on these folklore claims regarding validation, isolation of active principles, pharmaco-toxicological test and clinical trials to assess efficacy and safety of uses are required. These may bring to light new drugs of herbal origin. So, there is urgency of recording information of plants used for medical purpose by tribals before depletion of this traditional knowledge.

It is also clear that there is a wide usage of local flora by the tribal, which suggests that the cultivation and conservation of such indigenous plants should be encouraged by helping them grow these plants on the barren hill slopes and along the ravine belts.

The cultivation would also reduce the area prone to such natural calamities landslides and soil erosion. • One hundred gram of Adhatoda vasica leaves was cleaned with water and cut into small pieces. • Boiled with one litre of water and reduce to one fourth and filtered by using thin cloth. • Sugar was added to the extract and filtered again and boiled till it attains syrup consistency. • The decoction was stored in a glass bottles. This can be stored maximum for a period of two month.

Ten to 20 ml of Adathodai decoction was mixed with boiled and cooled water. This may be consumed three times in a day. There is no need of any food restriction. • The roasted ingredients were ground along with dried leaves into a coarse powder by using mixie and sieved using 80 mm sieve. • All powders were mixed together and stored in glass bottles. It can be used up to six mon One teaspoon of herbal tea powder and 25g of jaggery were boiled with 200 ml of water and reduced upto100 ml and boiled herbal tea was consumed twice a day (before food) for a period of ten days. The patient was advised to avoid fried foods and they were advised to consume easily digestible foods.

3.

Asthma powder (dried root), Aplinia officinarum (dried root), Curcuma aromatica and Piper nigrum were ground along with dried leaves into a coarse powder by using mixie and sieved. • Both powders were mixed together and the asthma powder will be stored in glass bottles and it can be used upto three months.

Half teaspoon of asthma powder is consumed with 5ml of honey once in a day for ten days in empty stomach. Because the absorption of asthma powder was very quickly by the duodenum with empty stomach.

There is no food restriction.

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