Ethnomedicinal Plants Used for Stomach and Stomach Related Ailments by Santal Tribals of Purba Bardhaman District, West Bengal, India

The culture and life style of different tribal population is changing quite rapidly. As a result, ethnomedicinal information also diminishing, if we do not make effort to document them systematically. In this study, Ethnomedicinal information were collected from local Santal medicine men, Christians and other general public. Information was collected in the form of interviews. 50 plant species those belonging to twenty-nine families and forty-eight genera have been documented. From ordinary stomach ache to complicated liver related ailments, a variety of plants used by the Santals of Purba Bardhaman district recorded. This study shows that the plants belonging to the families, Fabaceae and Apocynaceae are a predominant, and Santal community depends on these plants extensively. The documented plants are enumerated with binomial, family and vernacular name and their ethnomedicinal uses for stomach and stomach related ailments. It may provide foundation for future investigation for the development of plant-based novel drug.