A Comparative Analysis of Medicinal Plants Used by Folk Medicinal Healers in Villages Adjoining the Ghaghot, Bangali and Padma Rivers of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a deltaic country with about 150 large and small rivers flowing through various sections of the country. Due to absence or lack of access to modern medical facilities, the people residing in villages adjoining the river banks rely mostly on folk medicinal practitioners for their primary health-care needs. We conducted an ethnomedicinal survey among the folk medicinal practitioners (Kavirajes) of Rahmatpur village (beside the Ghaghot river, Rangpur district), Narshe, Koobtola, Fakhirpara, Mazipara, Kothubpoor, Bethdangha, Chondhonpara, and Mothurapara villages (beside the Bangali river, Bogra district) and the villages of Narayanpur, Kalidaskhali, Durduria, Khayarhat, Alaipur, and Bagha (beside the Padma river, Rajshahi district). The objective of the study was to analyze whether differences exist in the use of medicinal plants for treatment of various ailments among the Kavirajes of villages adjoining the three different rivers. Interviews were conducted with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire and the guided-field walk method. Plant specimens were identified at the Bangladesh National Herbarium. We did not find any appreciable differences in the total number of medicinal plants used in the three areas of survey. The Kavirajes by the Ghaghot river used 48 medicinal plants distributed into 33 families, which is nearly the same with 50 medicinal plants distributed into 33 families used by the Kavirajes of Bangali river villages, and 54 plants distributed into 40 families used by the Kavirajes of Padma river villages. However, considerable differences existed in the selection and use of plants for treatment of various ailments. Out of a total of 125 plant species obtained from the three survey areas, only two plants – Heliotropium indicum and Piper longum were commonly used by Kavirajes in all three survey areas, and even then they were used to treat different ailments. The use of plant parts also differed considerably between the three survey areas. Whole plants accounted for 10.3% of total use at Ghaghat versus 25.9% at Bangali and 7.9% use at Padma river adjoining villages. Use of stems of medicinal plants comprised 17.2% of total use at Ghaghot, while at Bangali and Padma river adjoining villages, the figures were, respectively, 6.2% and 0. The ailments treated also varied considerably, with more plants being used for ethnoveterinary purposes observed in Bangali river adjoining villages. The considerable differences between use of plants cannot be attributed to climate conditions and absence of any given plant species in any given area. All 125 plant species noted in the present survey were present in all three survey areas. Interviews conducted with the Kavirajes indicated that the observed variations in plant use may result from an individual Kavirajes’ experimentation with plants and then confining the experimentally gained knowledge to himself, which is closely guarded and only passed from generation to generation within the immediate family.