An ethnobotanical portrait of a village: Koikuri, Dinajpur with reference to medicinal plants

An ethnobotanical study of the village Koikuri, under Birol Upazilla of Dinajpur district was made. Information gathered through structural questionnaire and interviews shows that in the village, among 111 households 18 belong to the Santhal tribe who mostly use different plant species for their diseases and ailments. During the survey, 76 plant taxa belonged to 71 genera under 40 families were mentioned by them having economic importance, of which only the ethnomedicinal values of them were highlighted. All specimens were used only as medicine and while 35 had both medicinal and other economic importance. Different plant parts of different spp. are used as medicine for treating various diseases; bark of 7, leaf of 38, fruit of 20, root of 18, seed of 3, wood of 1, latex of 3, stem of 2, rhizome of 1, bulb of 2 and whole plant of 6 species were used as medicine. It was observed that the availability of these plants is decreasing at an alarming rate. This observation also reveals that habitat destruction, over exploitation and unplanned agriculture were the reasons for depletion of medicinal plants. Therefore, the medicinal plants used as traditional healthcare system need urgent conservation.