Journal of Ethnopharmacology 134 (2011) 354362

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Journal of Ethnopharmacology
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Consensus of local knowledge on medicinal plants among traditional healers in
Mayiladumparai block of Theni District, Tamil Nadu, India
P. Pandikumar, M. Chellappandian, S. Mutheeswaran, S. Ignacimuthu

Division of Ethnopharmacology, Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College, Nungambakkam, Chennai 600034, India
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 23 September 2010
Received in revised form
30 November 2010
Accepted 18 December 2010
Available online 28 December 2010
Keywords:
Consensus analysis
Traditional medicine
Theni District
Tamil Nadu
India
a b s t r a c t
Aimof the study: The role of ethnobotany in drug discovery is huge but there are criticisms over such stud-
ies due to their qualitative nature. The present study is aimed at quantitatively abstracting the medicinal
plant knowledge of the healers trained in traditional ways, in Mayiladumparai block of Theni District,
Tamil Nadu, India.
Materials and methods: The interviews and eld observations were carried out in all the 18 village pan-
chayaths fromJanuary to June 2010, consisting of 148 eld days. The interviews were conducted with 80
traditional healers, after obtaining prior informed consent. Successive free listing was used to interview
the informants. The informant consensus factor (F
ic
) was calculated to estimate the use variability of
medicinal plants. Fidelity index and Cultural importance index were also calculated to analyze the data.
Results: This study recorded the ethno-medicinal usage of 142 ethno-species belonging to 62 families that
were used to prepare 504 formulations. Jaundice had the highest F
ic
value than all the illness categories
studied. Phyllanthus spp. was the highly cited medicinal plant to treat jaundice and had high delity
index value. This was followed by Senna angustifolia and Terminalia chebula as laxatives. The highly cited
medicinal plants in each group with high F
ic
value were Pongamia pinnata (antiseptic), Aerva lanata
(antidote and snakebite), Blepharis maderaspatensis (cuts and wounds), Abutilon indicum (hemorrhoids),
Ruta graveolens (spiritual medicine), Ocimum tenuiorum (cough), and Solanum trilobatum (pulmonary
ailments). Phyllanthus spp., was the most culturally signicant species according to this index, followed
by Borassus ebellifer.
Conclusion: The process of drug discovery has become highly expensive and post-approval and post-
marketing withdrawal of drugs is continuing. In such scenario, reverse pharmacology is considered an
attractive option. The medicinal plants enumerated in this study with high number of citations and high
F
ic
values for illness categories might give some useful leads for further biomedical research.
2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The usage of medicinal plants for primary health care needs
by millions of people in developing world is still occupying a
prominent position(WHO, 2002). The folk remedies are considered
readilyavailable, cheapandtimetested. India is richinethnic diver-
sity and has a well practiced knowledge of herbal medicines. The
global demandfor medicinal plants is increasing and, inIndia alone,
the market is expanding at an annual rate of 20% (Uprety et al.,
2010), but only a little is known about its use-patterns (Ramawat
and Goyal, 2008). For the past three decades, much information
has been stored in the eld of ethnobotany purely by qualitative
overviews onhumanplant relationship. Manycriticisms are raised
over the paternalistic and simplistic nature of these studies and

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 44 2817 8348; fax: +91 44 2817 5566.
E-mail address: entolc@hotmail.com (S. Ignacimuthu).
credibility for further biomedical evaluation and natural resource
management is doubted(RagupathyandNewmaster, 2009). Hence,
there is a felt need for the application of quantitative measures of
reliability in the eld of ethnobotany.
Herbal medicines often contain many ingredients whose effects
on the biochemical pathways are unknown. At the same time,
the traditional remedies may contain critical clues for disorders
that have been refractory to western medicine (Lazar, 2004). The
interest in nature as a source for potential chemotherapeutic
agent continues (Gurib-Fakim, 2006) and nearly half of the small
molecules approvedinthis decade are natural products (Kong et al.,
2009). In the search for novel molecules, traditional knowledge on
medicinal plants has helped in many instances. Biguanides for dia-
betes (Witters, 2001), artemisinin for malaria (Harvey, 1999) and
a recently adopted satiety inducer, P-57 from Hoodia gordonii, a
medicinal plant usedby the Africantribes to avoidfeeling of hunger
while hunting (Saklani and Kutty, 2008) are some notable exam-
ples.
0378-8741/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jep.2010.12.027
P. Pandikumar et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 134 (2011) 354362 355
Fig. 1. Location of study area, Mayiladumparai block in Theni District.
The present study is aimed at quantitatively abstracting the
medicinal plant knowledge of the healers trained in traditional
ways, in Mayiladumparai block of Theni District. Previous works
conductedinthis district were primarily devotedto tribal medicine
and they were qualitative (Ignacimuthu et al., 2008).
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study area
The study area (9

33

39

N; 77

21

77

29

E) is located on the
easternoffshoot of WesternGhats running inTheni district of Tamil
Nadu(Fig. 1). The altitude ranges from560 (Thumakkundu) to 1560
(Meghamalai) m.s.l. It consists of 18 village panchayaths and there
are no urban areas. It is in the shadow region of SW monsoon and
gets maximum rainfall at NE monsoon. Tropical dry deciduous,
moist deciduous and semi evergreen forests are the forest types
of this area and Meghamalai Reserve forest is a part of this area.
Cultivation of Cashew nuts, silk-cotton, coconut, and brick mak-
ing are the important sources for revenue. The population of this
area is 67,863 and the density of population is 108/sq.km; this is
lower for that district. The male:female ratio is 1:0.92, and the lit-
eracy rate is 61.84 for male and 38.16 for female. This block has
3 primary health centers and 14 subcenters (Anonymous, 2009).
Hospitals are available only in Theni which is nearly 40km away
from the study area.
2.2. Interviews
The interviews and eld observations were carried out in all
the 18 village panchayaths according to the methods of Alexiades
(1996), and Heinrich et al. (2009). The eldwork was conducted
from January to June 2010, consisting of 148 eld days. The inter-
view was focused on healers (Heinrich et al., 1992) who were
trained in the traditional way and still giving treatment to gen-
eral public. The government trained healers were excluded since
only traditional healers were included in this study. The purpose
and nature of the program were described to them in a simple lan-
guage to obtain prior informed consent. Eighty seven traditional
medical practitioners were identied in the study area and 80 of
them were willing to share their knowledge. These 80 informants
were included for further interviews. Successive free listing was
used to interview the informants (Heinrich et al., 2009). In some
instances the informants were requested to collect specimens of
the plants that they knew or to show the plant species on site. The
questionnaire consisted of two parts. The rst part dealt with the
demographic prole of the informants such as name, age, sex, years
of experience, educationandoccupation. Thesecondpart dealt with
356 P. Pandikumar et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 134 (2011) 354362
their knowledge on medicinal plants; in this, the informants were
askedto describe the medicines usedby them, the local name of the
plants, parts used, method of preparing drugs, mode of usage and
the diseases treated. In this part, the symptomatology of the dis-
eases was also documented. The questions were asked in person
and the answers were recorded. As a recognition of their collabora-
tion we had given themmedicinal plant seedlings to growin home
gardens and made a commitment to publish a free booklet on their
traditional knowledge in local language, Tamil. All the interview
protocols were carried out in accordance with the guidelines of ISE
code of ethics for ethnobiological research (2006).
Voucher specimens for all the plants and crude drugs were
collected and stored in the herbarium of Entomology Research
Institute, LoyolaCollege, Chennai for futurereference. Thebotanical
nomenclatures of the specimens were conrmedusingregional o-
ras (Gamble, 1997; Matthew, 1999) and International Plant Names
Index (2010).
2.3. Analysis of the data
The ethnobotanical indices were founded on a basic structure,
Use Report (UR), which can be described as informant (i) men-
tions the use of the species (s) in the use category (u) (Kufer et al.,
2005). The indications/symptoms were grouped into illness cate-
gories based on the emic (in a culture-specic way) perceptions of
the informants. These data were assessed in three ways.
i. To test the consistency of informants knowledge in treating a
particular illness category, calculation of consensus factor (F
ic
)
was followed (Trotter and Logan, 1986). This factor can be given
as:
F
ic
=
N
ur
N
t
N
ur
1
where N
ur
is the number of use reports of informants for par-
ticular illness category, and N
t
is the number of species used for
particular illness by all informants. This factor ranges fromzero
to one, where increasing values indicate high rate of informant
consensus.
ii. To assess the importance of individual species in each group
delity level (Friedman et al., 1986) was calculated.
Fidelity level (FL) =

N
p
N

100
where N
p
is the number of informants citing the use of the plant
for a particular illness and N is the total number of informants
citing the species for any illness. The calculation of delity level
was limited to those plants with at least three citations for a
particular illness category. Increasing values of FL for a species
indicate its uniqueness to treat a particular illness.
iii. Culturally important species as medicines were identied
by cultural importance index (CI) of Tardio and Pardo-De-
Santayana (2008). It is a most objective index because it
considers diversity of uses along with the consensus of infor-
mant. It can be dened by the following formula:
CI =
Unc

U=U1
In

i=i1
URui
N
where NC is the total number of different illness categories (of
each i species), UR is the total number of use reports for each
species, and N is the total number of informants.
Table 1
Demographic prole of the informants included in the survey.
N %
Age
Under 30 2 2.5
3040 12 15.0
4150 40 50.0
5175 22 27.5
Above 75 4 5.0
Experience
<5 years 4 5.0
520 years 35 43.8
2140 years 32 40.0
>40 years 9 11.2
Sex
Men 68 85.0
Women 12 15.0
Education
Uneducated 38 47.5
Primary school 22 27.5
Secondary school 12 15.0
High school 8 10.0
Occupation
Agricultural employees 21 26.2
Full time practitioners 33 41.2
Self-employed 18 22.5
Spiritual healers and astrologers 8 10.0
0 10 20 30
0
10
20
30
40
a
b
Number of informants
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

s
p
e
c
i
e
s
Fig. 2. Distribution of local knowledge among traditional healers.
3. Results
3.1. Demographic prole of the informants
Fifty percent of the knowledge holders were between 41 and 50
years of age and only small portion (5.0%) of the informants was
over 75. A major portion of the informants (95%) had at least ve
years of experience in treating people with their medicine. There is
unevenness inmale:femaleratio(1:0.17). Aconsiderablepart of the
knowledge holders was uneducated (47.5%) or had only primary
school education (27.5%). Only 41.25% of the traditional healers
had been doing this as a full time job (Table 1). The AUC of species
reported by one or two key informants was 25.0 and by more than
two informants was 153.0 (Fig. 2).
3.2. Plants and preparation of remedies
This study recorded the ethno-medicinal usage of 142 ethno-
species belonging to 62 families which were used to prepare 504
formulations. The local knowledge of traditional healers in May-
iladumaprai block of Theni District on medicinal plants is listed
P. Pandikumar et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 134 (2011) 354362 357
Table 2
Different gathering environments of the species to prepare formulations.
Gathering environments Number of species %
Waste lands, courtyards, road sides 39 27.65
Field edges and fences 29 20.56
Cultivated lands 29 20.56
Scrub jungles 21 14.89
Forest elements 11 7.09
Not present in the area 13 9.21
Fig. 3. Different methods of preparing medicines (a) internal and (b) external.
in Supplementary data 1. Each species had an average of 2.70 dif-
ferent usages. The average number of informants reporting the
medicinal usage for a plant was 6.13. A major portion of the
medicinal plants (69.49%) used by them was growing wild fol-
lowed by plants which were cultivated (21.27%). The plants that
had more number of use reports were Phyllanthus spp. (Phyl-
lanthus amarus and Phyllanthus urinaria) (36), Borassus ebellifer
(32), Piper nigrum (32), Aerva lanata (27), and Andrographis pan-
iculata (23). Species that showed a high versatility of uses were
Piper nigrum (11 different uses), Azadirachta indica (10), Acalypha
indica (10), and Curcuma longa (10). Regarding the local frequency
of species the informants reported 89.35% of species to be very
common or common. Regarding the gathering areas of medici-
nal plants, a major portion (68.77%) of the medicinal plants was
collected fromareas which were disturbed by anthropogenic activ-
ities (Table 2). Fifteen different types of remedies were recorded
in the present study; seven of which were for external use and
eight were for internal use. The healers prepare medicines when-
ever needed rather than preparing and storing them in readily
treatable forms such as tablets, powder, and jams (Fig. 3a). In
the case of external usage medicines prescribed with spiritual
backgrounds have high value (Fig. 3b). The healers were using
earthen or stone made apparatus for preparing these formulations
(Fig. 4).
3.3. Quantication of the data
Based on F
ic
values calculated, the illness categories were clas-
sied into three arbitrary groups as proposed by Moerman (2007),
with a modication (Table 3). The illness categories that had a
high F
ic
values greater than mean F
ic
plus standard deviation
(0.3930.293) were assigned as illness categories with high F
ic
values. The illness categories which had low F
ic
values that were
Fig. 4. Apparatus used for preparing formulations: (a) stone made pestle and mor-
tars of different sizes for crushing; (b) a traditional healer (Mr. Sultan Bai) showing
earthen made distillation unit.
lower than mean F
ic
plus standard deviation were assigned as
illness categories with low F
ic
values. The remaining illness cat-
egories were assigned as illness categories with moderate F
ic
values.
3.3.1. Illness categories with high F
ic
values
Jaundice had the highest F
ic
value than all the illness cate-
gories studied. Phyllanthus spp. was thehighlycitedmedicinal plant
to treat jaundice and had high delity level. This plant was also
recommended by the healers to strengthen liver. This was fol-
lowed by Senna angustifolia and Terminalia chebula as laxatives.
In the case of adjuvants, Borassus ebellifer had high number of
citations followed by Piper nigrum, Cuminum cyminum, and Zin-
giber ofcinale. The highly cited medicinal plants in each group
were Pongamia pinnata (antiseptic), Aerva lanata (antidote and
snakebite), Blepharis maderaspatensis (cuts and wounds), Abutilon
indicum (hemorrhoids), Ruta graveolens (spiritual medicine), Oci-
mum tenuiorum (cough), and Solanum trilobatum (pulmonary
ailments).
3.3.2. Illness categories with moderate F
ic
values
In anti-rheumatic category, Plumbago zeylanica was the highly
cited medicinal plant followed by Cardiospermum helicacabum
and Vitex negundo. In this category Clerodendrum phlomidis and
Delonix elata were used only to treat joint disorders. In febrifuges,
Evolvulus alsinoides and Mollugo nudicaulis were the highly cited
358 P. Pandikumar et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 134 (2011) 354362
Table 3
F
ic
values for different illness categories treated by the healers of Mayiladumparai block.
Illness category Number of plants Number of citations F
ic
Illness categories with high F
ic
values
Jaundice 3 27 0.923
Laxative 4 20 0.842
Adjuvants 15 78 0.818
Antiseptic 8 28 0.740
Antidote 18 66 0.738
Cuts and wounds 6 20 0.736
Hemorrhoid treatment 13 45 0.727
Snake bite remedy 10 33 0.718
Spiritual medicine 5 15 0.714
Cough medicine 10 32 0.709
Pulmonary ailments 19 63 0.709
Illness categories with moderate F
ic
values
Anti-rheumatic 16 43 0.642
Febrifuge 9 21 0.600
Liver ailments 5 11 0.600
Diabetes 11 24 0.565
Antithrombotic 6 12 0.545
Digestive ailments 15 31 0.533
Venereal ailments 8 16 0.533
Blood purier 15 27 0.461
Antidiarrheal 7 12 0.454
Coolants 12 21 0.450
Urinary ailments 14 24 0.434
Dermatological ailments 16 26 0.400
Gastrointestinal ailments 21 34 0.393
Head ache 19 28 0.333
Immune enhancers 11 16 0.333
Orthopedics 5 7 0.333
Paralysis 10 14 0.307
Gynecological ailments 7 9 0.250
Heart medicine 4 5 0.250
Tooth ache remedy 8 10 0.222
Aphrodisiac 5 6 0.200
Illness categories with low F
ic
values
Analgesics 10 11 0.100
Aborticiant 1 1 0.000
Anticonvulsive 5 5 0.000
Burn dressing 2 2 0.000
Ear medicine 1 1 0.000
Eye ailments 6 6 0.000
Hypotensive 2 2 0.000
Oral ailments 1 1 0.000
Others 3 3 0.000
Psycological ailments 2 2 0.000
Reproductive ailments 5 5 0.000
Vertigo medicine 1 1 0.000
plants (Table 4). The plants with more than ve citations for
the same use in other groups were Gymnema sylvestre (dia-
betes), Pergularia daemia (digestive ailments), Cynodon dactylon
(blood purier), Euphorbia hirta (antidiarrheal), Musa paradisiaca
(urinary ailments), Andrographis paniculata (dermatological ail-
ments), Gynandropsis pentaphylla (head ache), and Azadirachta
indica (immune enhancer).
3.3.3. Culturally important medicinal species
Table 5 shows the cultural importance index of the 25 most
relevant and useful species of this area. Phyllanthus spp., was the
most culturally signicant species according to this index. This
was followed by Borassus ebellifer. The sugar extracted from the
sap of this plants inorescence substituted the cane sugar to pre-
pare medicines. In the 25 most culturally important species of
this area, 14 were herbs, six were shrubs and ve were trees.
Although, the number of herbs were more, the mean CI index
of trees was high (0.2470.03) over that of herbs (0.2230.02).
These results are in accordance with previous reports (Moerman,
1994).
3.4. Perception and dissemination of knowledge
In our study area, the major knowledge holders were poorly
literate and the transfer of knowledge was mainly by oral means.
Their unique ways to transfer the knowledge to others were
classied into four groups for descriptive purpose (Supplementary
data 1).
3.4.1. Giving names with cues for which they can be used
The folk genera were named by indicating their application.
The species such as Aristolochia indica, Corallocarpus epigeaeus and
Selaginella plana were named after karuda, indicating brahminy
kite, a symbolic enemy of snakes and hence poisonous. These three
plants were used for the treatment of snakebites. Likewise, Clero-
dendrum phlomidis and Delonix elata were named with a prex
vatha (=disorders of joints; Sanskrit) to identify their utility to treat
joint disorders.
3.4.2. By correlating with other effective medicines
The medicinal plants were compared with the utility of bhas-
mas (mineral based preparations in Indian system of traditional
P. Pandikumar et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 134 (2011) 354362 359
Table 4
Fidelity level of interesting medicinal plants of the study area.
Illness categories Plants
Adjuvants Borassus ebellifer* (100.00), Piper nigrum (25.00)*, Cuminum cyminum (100.00)*, Zingiber ofcinale (28.57)*, Sesamum indicum (100.00)*,
Piper longum (100.00), Coriandrum sativum (50.00), Nigella sativa (60.00)
Antidiarrheal Euphorbia hirta (41.66)*
Antidote Aerva lanata (44.44)*, Aristolochia indica (47.61)*, Andrographis paniculata (34.78)*, Piper nigrum (25.00)*, Azima tetracantha (100.00),
Corallocarpus epigeaeus (80.00), Acalypha indica (16.66), Allium cepa (25.00), Calotropis gigantea (75.00)
Antithrombotic Bambusa bambos (75.00), Dodonaea viscosa (75.00)
Antirheumatic Plumbago zeylanica (66.66)*, Cardiospermum helicacabum (55.55)*, Vitex negundo (71.42)*, Clerodendrum phlomidis (100.00)*, Boerhavia
diffusa (75.00), Delonix elata (100.00)
Antiseptic Pongamia pinnata* (47.61), Curcuma longa* (36.36), Azadirachta indica (19.04)
Spiritual medicine Ruta graveolens* (100.00), Quercus infectoria* (71.42), Acorus calamus (75.00)
Blood purier Cynodon dactylon* (50.00), Enicostemma axillere* (62.50), Phyllanthus spp. (8.33), Pongamia pinnata (14.28)
Coolants Pedalium murex (66.66), Phyllanthus emblica (33.33), Terminalia chebula (20.00)
Cough medicine Ocimum tenuiorum* (50.00), Zingiber ofcinale* (28.57), Solanum trilobatum (30.76), Piper nigrum (9.37)
Cuts & wounds Blepharis maderaspatensis* (52.94), Pongamia pinnata (19.04), Curcuma longa (18.18)
Dermatological ailments Andrographis paniculata* (30.43), Cocas nucifera (100.00)
Diabetes Gymnema sylvestre* (77.77), Syzygium cumini (50.00), Cassia auriculata (50.00)
Digestive ailments Pergularia daemia* (80.00), Zingiber ofcinale (19.04), Trianthema portulacastum (50.00)
Febrifuge Evolvulus alsinoides (80.00), Mollugo nudicaulis (100.00), Coriandrum sativum (50.00), Ocimum tenuiorum (16.66)
Gastrointestinal ailments Coccinia indica (57.14), Cassia occidentalis (42.85), Cissus quadrangularis (25.00), Solanum nigrum (60.00), Toddalia asiatica (100.00)
Gynecological ailments Euphorbia hirta (25.00)
Head ache Gynandropsis pentaphylla* (55.55), Allium sativum (33.33)
Hemorrhoid treatment Abutilon indicum* (83.33), Achyranthes aspera* (54.54), Cissus quadrangularis* (33.33), Mimosa pudica* (50.00), Allium cepa (25.00),
Argemone mexicana (50.00), Punica granatum (100.00)
Immune enhancers Azadirachta indica* (23.80)
Jaundice Phyllanthus spp.* (69.44)
Laxative Cassia angustifolia* (84.61), Terminalia chebula* (46.66)
Liver ailments Phyllanthus spp.* (16.66)
Pulmonary ailments Solanum trilobatum* (61.53), Azadirachta indica* (23.80), Acalypha indica* (27.77), Ocimum tenuiorum* (27.77), Zingiber ofcinale*
(23.80), Acacia pennata (66.66), Mukia madarasepatana (50.00), Piper nigrum (12.50), Achyranthus aspera (27.77), Cynodon dactylon
(30.00), Plectranthus ambonicus (37.50), Leucas aspera (42.85)
Snake bite remedy Aerva lanata* (40.74), Aristolochia indica* (42.85), Andrographis paniculata (17.39), Piper nigrum (9.37)
Toothe ache remedy Solnum virginianum (50.00)
Urinary ailments Musa paradisiaca* (83.33), Aerva lanata (11.11)
Veneral ailments Aloe vera (80.00), Syzygium cumini (50.00)
Fidelity level is mentioned in parentheses; species mentioned with asterisk have 5 citations for that illness category.
medicine). The red oxide of iron is given as a remedy to treat jaun-
dice, anemia and taken as appetizer. The healers correlate Eclipta
prostrata as having the power of iron and thus recommend it to
treat jaundice and anemia.
3.4.3. By symbolic stories
The medicinal properties of the species were correlated with
the stories in epics. The leaves of Ocimum tenuiorum were offered
to lord Vishnu, a Hindu god who dwells in moist place to keep
him warm and to prevent the diseases of cold, such as pulmonary
ailments.
3.4.4. By its signatures
Due to high mucilage content, the cut leaves of Blepharis
maderaspatensis stick with each other and hence its usage against
cut wounds. In many of the traditional communities there is a
strong belief that the remedies are not far fromtheir causes. Some
of the healers in this community also maintain this belief. Aca-
lypha indica (Kuppaimeni =plant in garbage) grows near garbage.
The healers were recommending this plant as a remedy for skindis-
eases and poisons of scorpion and centipedes, which are promoted
by that environment.
4. Discussion
4.1. Demographic prole of the informants
Plants are not used in cultural vacuumand thus it becomes nec-
essary to include the socio-cultural context of the particular group
(Heinrichet al., 2009). Womeninthis studyarea knewtotreat some
Table 5
Cultural importance index of 25 most relevant species.
Name of the plant CII Name of the plant CII
Phyllanthus spp. 0.437 Terminalia chebula 0.187
Borassus ebellifer 0.375 Cassia angustifolia 0.187
Piper nigrum 0.350 Solanum trilobatum 0.162
Aerva lanata 0.325 Abutilon indicum 0.150
Andrographis paniculata 0.287 Allium cepa 0.150
Curcuma longa 0.262 Cissus quadrangularis 0.150
Aristolochia indica 0.262 Euphorbia hirta 0.150
Azadirachta indica 0.262 Mimosa pudica 0.150
Pongamia pinnata 0.262 Phyllanthus emblica 0.150
Zingiber ofcinale 0.262 Plumbago zeylanica 0.150
Acalypha indica 0.225 Achyranthes aspera 0.137
Ocimum tenuiorum 0.224 Cynodon dactylon 0.125
Blepharis maderaspatensis 0.212
pediatric andgynecological ailments but theydidnot treat thecom-
munity as a healer. This caused the unevenness in male: female
ratio. The reduced revenue generation through this job caused
dependence on other jobs for their livelihood. There was a growing
trend among indigenous people to abandon traditional knowledge
and values for alternatives with apparently greater economic and
social opportunities (Godoy, 1994). We hypothesize that since the
revenue derived directly by holding traditional knowledge is not
up to their expectation, there is a possibility for the erosion of
their knowledge in future. The AUC of species reported by one to
two key informants was low compared to the species reported by
more than two informants; this indicated (Fig. 2) that the knowl-
edge was distributed homogeneously unlike in some previously
reported results, which showed heterogeneity and unevenness in
distribution (Signorini et al., 2009).
360 P. Pandikumar et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 134 (2011) 354362
4.2. Plants and preparation of remedies
The plants which were utilized by the healers in the study
area were mainly growing as wild and a lesser number was cul-
tivated. The plants growing in anthropogenic environments were
holding the major portion of their traditional knowledge (Table 2).
The reason can be described in terms of cultural erosion (Quilan
and Quilan, 2007), a worldwide phenomenon occurring at a huge
rate in indigenous societies. Traditional knowledge is a dynamic
entity which is hybridized with new social, economic, political,
and ecological phenomena caused by globalization (Sears et al.,
2007). This causedthe introductionof exotic species intheir medic-
inal ora and loss of knowledge on the utility of native species
(Smith-Oka, 2008; Molares and Ladio, 2009). Limiting forest access
to the indigenous communities might also be a reason for the
loss of knowledge on native species by causing reduced forest
value (Benz et al., 2000). The effectiveness of the plants pre-
scribed as medicines with spiritual background is not simply a
consequence of their pharmacology but a varying combination of
pharmacology andits cultural andtraditional meanings (Moerman,
2007).
4.3. Quantication of the data
4.3.1. Illness categories with high F
ic
values
Previous quantitative study conducted among Malasars of Tamil
Nadu had also indicated high F
ic
value for jaundice and usefulness
of Phyllanthus amarus (Ragupathy et al., 2008). Previous in vitro and
in vivo studies conducted supported the utility of this plant intreat-
ing viral hepatitis (Venkateswaran et al., 1987). The high usage
of laxatives is due to their perception that they purify stomach
to cure gastrointestinal and dermatological disorders. In adju-
vant group, Piper nigrum, Piper longum and Zingiber ofcinale alone
or in combination known as thrikatu benecially increased the
absorptive surface of the small intestine (Prakash and Srinivasan,
2010), increased the intestinal absorption of Curcumin (Suresh
and Srinivasan, 2010), peoxacin (Dama et al., 2008), ampicillin
and noroxacin (Janakiraman and Manavalan, 2008). A avanoid
glycoside (CC-I) isolated from Cuminum cyminum increased the
bioavailability of rifampicin (Sachin et al., 2007). Of the ve cita-
tions for Nigella sativa, three were prescribed as adjuvant for
hemorrhoid treatment. This was supported by a preclinical study
in which the treatment with Nigella sativa oil reduced the proin-
ammatory cytokine levels in TNBS induced experimental colitis
(Isik et al., 2010). Bites and stings by poisonous animals are a
common problem for most of the villagers working in elds and
forests (Amiguet et al., 2005). If they get any wounds or poisonous
bites in elds, the treatment with the medicinal plants is the eas-
ily accessible form of medicine. This might be the reason for the
high F
ic
value for the illness categories, viz. antidote, antiseptic,
cuts, wounds andsnakebite remedies. Highprevalence of bronchial
asthma and upper respiratory tract infections (Anonymous, 2009)
in the study area might be the reason for high F
ic
for that illness cat-
egory. The emic way of classication includes hemorrhoids with
many other diseases that caused lower gastrointestinal bleeding.
This knowledge canbe exploitedfor prospecting novel drugs where
surgery is the mainstay of intervention (Barnert and Messmann,
2008).
4.3.2. Illness categories with moderate F
ic
values
In illness categories of this group the species such as Cardiosper-
mum helicacabum (Sheeba and Asha, 2009), Vitex negundo (Zheng
et al., 2009) (anti-rheumatic), Phyllanthus spp. (Gopi and Setty,
2010) (liver ailments), Gymnema sylvestre (Leach, 2007), Syzygium
cumini (Helmstadter, 2008), Senna auriculata (Gupta et al., 2010)
(diabetes), Euphorbiahirta(Galvezet al., 1993) (antidiarrheal), Musa
paradisiaca (Patnakar et al., 2008), Aerva lanata (Soundararajan
et al., 2006) (urinary ailments), Cissus quadrangularis (Jainu et al.,
2006), Solanum nigrum (Jainu and Devi, 2006) (gastrointestinal ail-
ments), and Azadirachta indica (Goswami et al., 2010) (immune
enhancer) had at least three citations for the same use and phar-
macological support.
Illness categories withlowvalues indicate that the species men-
tioned might be an artifact, or have fallen into disuse because of
cultural adaptation, or be ineffective for conditions reported, or
have become rare, or might belong to cultural fringe of knowledge
(Heinrich et al., 2009).
4.3.3. Culturally important medicinal species
Cultural importance index is the most objective index because
it is based on the informants consensus and additionally considers
diversity of uses. Aculturally important species can be described as
a species desired, preferred or with an affective evaluation by most
of the members of this culture (Tardio and Pardo-De-Santayana,
2008). It is anefcient tool for highlightingthosespecies withahigh
agreement for the culture of the whole survey area. The present
study showedthat most of the traditionally important species were
growing commonly in anthropogenic environments.
4.4. Perception and dissemination of knowledge
An indigenous person looks at the forest with innumerable
memories, associations, and anecdotes. Such aspects of phytodi-
versity are invisible and inaudible to most of us (Jain, 2000). Their
ways of perceiving, testing and transmitting the knowledge on
nature is mainly verbal and unique. In such orally transmitted sys-
tems, mnemonic cues (memory-aids) are essential to the viability
of knowledge transmission (Shepard, 2002). Although, the doctrine
of signatures was considered as pre-scientic, its reinterpretation
considered it as a device used for knowledge transmission, espe-
cially in pre-literate societies and as an attempt to explain why
the plant is useful for a particular ailment. Most of the signatures
are post-hoc appellations rather than a priori clues (Bennett, 2007)
and a way of understanding and retaining quite complex memories
(Donald, 1997). Some of the works published earlier have recorded
suchtype of knowledge transmissioninIndia (Jain, 2000) and other
countries (Dafni and Lev, 2002). The plants that are both efca-
cious and easy to remember are more likely to be maintained in
the pharmacopoeia of non-literate societies throughtime (Shepard,
2002).
5. Conclusion
The process of drug discovery has become highly expensive and
post-approval and post-marketing withdrawal of drugs is contin-
uing. In such a scenario, reverse pharmacology is considered an
attractive option because most of the natural products developed
in this way are part of routinely used medicines; thus tolerance and
safety of these products are relatively better knownthanother syn-
thetic chemical entities entering rst-in-man studies (Patwardhan
and Mashelkar, 2009). Further biomedical research on the medic-
inal plants mentioned in this study especially those with high
number of citations and high F
ic
values for illness categories might
provide some potential leads to fulll the needs of global health
priorities.
Acknowledgments
We are thankful to the traditional healers in Mayiladumparai
block of Theni District for their participation and sharing of
their valuable knowledge. We are grateful to the Department of
P. Pandikumar et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 134 (2011) 354362 361
AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Sanction Num-
ber: Z.15017/40/2008-E&C) for providing nancial support for this
study. We are thankful to the reviewers for their suggestions to
improve the quality of the manuscript.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.jep.2010.12.027.
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