Ethnobotanical Study on Medicinal Plants for Dermatological Disorders at Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Dermatological disorders affect people in all age groups and prevail all around the globe. In this regard, medicinal plants play a significant role as they are usually the first line of treatment in dermatological disorders. Because traditional healers in Bangladesh know little about the use of plants to treat different skin diseases, we carried out an ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) to explore the traditional uses for healing wounds and skin problems.

Objectives: This study aimed to list the plants employed as remedies against various dermatological disorders in CHT.

Methods: The survey was performed from January 2016 to December 2017 with fieldwork undertaken in CHT of Rangamati, Bandarban, and Khagrachari. Open-ended and semi-structured questionnaires were used for interviewing a total of 387 people comprising traditional healers, Ayurvedic/Unani drug manufacturers, and local inhabitants. A total of 56 plant species of 32 families were documented. The most frequently used plant parts were leaves. The majority of the species were shrub in nature, while paste represented their main mode of drug preparation. Most plants grew wild in forests, with some cultivated in homestead and gardens.

Results: There was remarkable diversity in the doses of different plant preparations for various treatments. The presence of identified active compounds can rationalize the conventional use of many plants to treat dermatological disorders in Bangladesh.

Conclusion: This documentation accounts for the preliminary information necessary to perform future phytochemical investigations and is vital for the conservation of these plants.