QUANTITATIVE ETHNOBOTANICAL DOCUMENTATION OF THE MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY THE INDIGENOUS MARING TRIBE OF CHANDEL DISTRICT OF MANIPUR, INDIA

An ethnobotanical programme was conducted in Maring inhabited areas of Chandel district of Manipur state of North-eastern India with an aim to document the indigenous knowledge of the community. Since, the community is mostly located in hilly areas they depend heavily on plant based medicines for curing their diseases. The collected data was quantitatively analyzed through the methods of Use Value (UV), Informant Consensus Factor (Fic) and Fidelity level (FL %). In this study, a total of 144 plant species belonging to 66 families were collected which is used by the tribal community in curing their ailments. The ailments were grouped into 18 disease categories. Skeleton muscular system disorder (SMSD), Oral care (OC) and Circulatory system disorder (CSD) had the highest Fic of 0.91, 0.89 and 0.84 respectively. The highest use reports were recorded from Genito-urinary disorders (GUD) with 176 use reports & 32 plant species, Circulatory system disorder (CSD) 126 use report & 21 species, Skeleton muscular system disorder (SMSD) with 79 use report, 8 species. Highest use value was recorded from Allium hookeri L. with 14 use reports by 20 informants giving the value of 1.05. The plant species with highest fidelity of 90 % in single ailment were Justicia gendarrussa N.L. Burman, Lindernia ruellioides (Colsm.) Pennell and Dalbergia stipulacea Roxb.. Other plants with high fidelity level are Trichosanthes bracteata (Lam.) Voigt. with 80%, Aloe vera Mill Gard. with 75%, Justicia adhatoda L. with 72.72%. A detailed clinical study of these promising plants will bring light in discovering new novel drugs.