Some Ethno-Medicinally Important Plants from Chhattisgarh, India, with Caution Stigma in Reference to their Abortifacient Activity

Plants have been utilized as medicines for thousands of years. Most of such plants have been already known for their medicinal values and traditional uses, providing the health-care to the majority of the people in a curative approach. Their identity as the direct therapeutic agents have attributed to their ethno-medicinal importance, helpful in curing or in prevention of many diseases. However, at the same time, some of their therapeutic properties have proven to be erroneous. The present work pivots on the documentation of 15 such common medicinal plants from Chhattisgarh, India, ethno-medicinally important, but should be cautiously used when treatment involves pregnant women due to their unusual activity of being abortifacient. However, this property of some medicinal plants is considered beneficial by the tribal people as the plants are used to induce abortion which is a common practice among them.