FABACEOUS MEDICINAL PLANTS USED IN TRIBAL MEDICINE INTHE EASTERN GHATS OF PENINSULAR INDIA -A REVIEWP. Seetharamu, V. Sivakumar, A.C. Polaiah and D. SekharAbstract Tribal communities in the Eastern Ghats of peninsular India are considered to be forest inhabitant living inharmony with their surrounding environment. Their close association with nature has enabled tribal peopleto observe the rich flora and fauna around them and updating themselves with the knowledge on the tribalflora and fauna. Over the years, they have mastered the art of living with nature solely depending on thenatural resources available. As part of this, they have customized the usage of plants as medicines. This has ledto the development of sound knowledge on the use of plants as herbal remedies for various ailmentsand has become the tradition of the tribal communities. In view of the growing health consciousness amongpeople, the demand for medicinal herbs is ever increasing due to herbal medicines are cheaper and safe incommunities since the side effects reported with herbal medicines are bare minimum compared to themodern allopathic drugs. Overall, the findings on diversity of the medicinal plant species in the forests ofthe Eastern Ghats of peninsular India indicate great diversity and richness of species. Among the botanicalfamilies supplying of raw materials of medicinal plants, Fabaceae is the most predominant family consistingof 60 plant species and their plant parts are widely used in tribal medicine to cure various commonlyoccurring diseases in the tribal areas of the region. Most of these medications are administered orally whilesome are applied externally to get a hold from the human ailments. |