A comparison of medicinal plant usage by folk medicinal practitioners of two adjoining villages in Lalmonirhat district, Bangladesh.

Folk medicinal practitioners (Kavirajes) provide primary health care to the rural population of around 86,000 villages in Bangladesh. Every village has at least one or more practicing Kavirajes. The Kavirajes rely almost exclusively on medicinal plants for treatment of various ailments. It was of interest to find out whether differences exist among the Kavirajes of the same as well as adjoining villages in the type of ailments treated and the species of medicinal plants used for treatment of any specific ailment. Interviews were conducted of the folk medicinal practitioners with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire and using the guided field-walk method. Plant specimens as pointed out by the practitioners were collected and pressed on the field and identification completed at the Bangladesh National Herbarium. The survey was conducted among the five Kavirajes practicing in the adjoining villages of Uttar Musrat Madati and Kisasat Madati in Lalmonirhat district, Bangladesh. The five Kavirajes of the two surveyed villages used 85 plant species distributed in to 51 families for treatment of various ailments. While some similarity was noted in the plant species and formulations used for treatment of a specific ailment, overall, the Kavirajes differed considerably as to the selection of plants and the formulations used for treatment. Each Kaviraj also specialized in his own unique list of ailments, which ailments were not treated by the other Kavirajes. Each Kaviraj seemed to have his own unique repertoire of plant species for treatment of ailments, a knowledge which was not shared usually with other Kavirajes. Moreover, available scientific literature validated the traditional use of a number of plants and indicated that they can be potential sources of newer drugs.