Division of Biodiversity and Biotechnology, Post Graduate and Research Department of Botany, Pachaiyappa's College, Chennai 600 030, Tamil Nadu, India.
An ethnobotanical survey through questionnaire and personal interviews was undertaken to collect information on the use of medicinal plants from local traditional healers in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu during June 2008 to December 2008. The investigation revealed that, the traditional healers have been using 53 species of plants distributed in 47 genera belonging to 29 families to treat various health problems. The documented medicinal plants were mostly used to cure skin diseases, stomach problems, nervous disorders, diabetes, urinary track infections and diarrhoea. Dominant families recorded in our study are Caesalpiniaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae and Solanaceae with 4 species each and leaves are most frequently used for the treatment of diseases.
Folk medicine, medicinal plants, traditional healers, Tamil Nadu, India
