Ethnobotanical Uses of Some Plants of Families Apocynaceae and Asclepiadaceae from the Northwestern Region of Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra

Abstract

Ahmednagar is one of the largest districts in Maharashtra in terms of area and population. The northwest region of this district includes parts of Sangamner, and the entire Akole tehsil falls in the Sahyadri ranges of Western Ghats, one of the 34 global hotspots. It has diversified topographic and climatic conditions that led to a wide range of flora and fauna along with different ethnic communities. The present study was undertaken to document and analyze traditional knowledge of using plants in medicine and food belonging to the families, Apocynaceae and Asclepiadaceae. Frequent field visits were carried out during 2014–2016 to different villages situated in the hilly regions, and the “key informants” were identified based on their reputation and experience regarding applications of plants for different purposes. The semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted in the local language (in Marathi) of the participants to collect the information. All plants recorded for their use in different ailments and in the food use were photographed in the field. The information such as botanical name, family, vernacular name, habit and habitat, analysis of like parts used such as use value (UV), and informant consensus factor (ICF) are provided. In the present study, 47 key informants provided the names of 31 plant species that are used to treat different types of ailments and also for food. Among the 31 plants recorded, 14 species are used in medicine, 11 species in food, and the remaining 6 species are used in both food and medicine. The highest number of species belonged to Asclepiadaceae (25 species each) followed by Apocynaceae (6 species each). Climbers are used more often (16 species), followed by herbs (9 species), shrubs (3 species), and tree (3 species). The tubers were the dominant plant parts used after leaves, latex, root, bark, stem, flower, and fruits. The applications of plant in both food and medicine were classified into 14 categories (medicine 9 and 5 food). The highest ICF scored in medicine is for diabetes, headache, kidney stone, swelling, and tonic (ICF = 1) followed by fever, wounds, snakebite (0.97), and skin disease (0.95). The study proves that documentation and data analysis of such traditional knowledge of plants may provide novel compounds for the treatment of different ailments and also new food species for coming generation.