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Abstract

India has one of world’s richest medicinal plant heritages. The wealth is not only in terms of the number of unique species documented, but also in terms of the tremendous depth of traditional knowledge for the uses of human & livestock health and also for agriculture. The medicinal plant species are used by various ethnic communalities for human and veterinary health care, across the various ecosystems from Ladakh in the trans-Himalayas to the southern coastal tip of Kanyakumari and from the deserts of Rajasthan and Kachch to the hills of the Northeast. Chitradurga district at its extreme limits is situated between longitudinal parallels of 760 01’ and 770 01’ east of Greenwich and latitudinal parallels of 130 34’ and 150 02’ North of Equator. The geographical area of the district is 8,388 square kilometers, which accounts for 4.37% of the State’s geographical area. As per the physioagronomic classification of the areas within the state; Chitradurga belongs to South-Eastern Cool and equitable maidan zone. The terrain is not uniform throughout the district and is characterised by vast stretches of undulating plains with chains of hills. General elevation of the district is between 500 m to 600 m above mean sea level. The forests of the division do not present a complex diversity either in their distribution or in composition. The forests are being retrogressed to various stages of degradation because of biotic influences like excessive grazing, lopping for fodder and fuel and unregulated felling, unscientific collection of medicinal plants by the health healers.

The present investigation is an attempt to an ethnomedicinal plants survey was carried out in Jogimatti Forest, Chitradurga district, Karnataka, for the exploration of medicinal plants used to cure various ailments. Information was gathered from the tribes and local health healers through questionnaire and personal intereviews during study visits. The local health healers are routine use 50 medicinal plants under 36 families for the treatment of several diseases either in single [22 applications] or in combination with some other ingredients, [28 applications]. The study reveals that leaves, stem/bark were most frequently used [18 species], followed by seeds [13 species], Fl/fl.buds [09 species], roots [08 species], fruits [07 species], entire plant [04 species], and latex [03 species] for the treatment of various ailments like eye ailments, joint pains, paralysis, urinary infection, eczema, fever, rheumatic complaints, inflammations, leprocy, cough and cold, herpes, rheumatism, ring worms, asthma, wound/burns, renal pain etc. The study also showed that many people of Chitradurga district still continue to depend traditionally on medicinal plants for primary health care. Therefore, the present study is an attempt to present some interesting ethnobotanical observations in connection with Jogimatti forest of Chitradurga district.

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