An Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal plants and Traditional practices of Ethnic people in Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Ethnopharmological relevance Anantapuram district is known for rich plant source and their traditional practices from long time by certain tribes for different diseases. Despite of increase in acceptance of traditional medicines in India, this rich indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants of Anantapuram district is not adequately documented previously. Methods Extensive was done for past three years and a total of 66 plants from 66 species and 64 genera of 42 families were recorded. Interviews, Observations and guided talks with 415 participants were conducted to obtain ethno botanical data on medicinal plants grown and maintained in Anantapuram District of Andhra Pradesh, India. The names of plant species, their local name, mode of administration and parts used for different diseases are gathered with F IC and FL values. Results


Introduction
From the beginning of human civilization plants have been used in the treatment of various diseases [1,2].According to world health organization most of the drugs are plant based and many of the drugs have to be discovered for different diseases depends on medicinal plants [3].India is the richest source and with different cultures in which medicinal plants are used as traditional medicine like Ayurvedha, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy [4,5].In India almost 2500 plant species having medicinal value are explored in folk, herbal and traditional medicine [6,7].The use of plants as medicine is an age old practice in India coming from generations to generations and is lack of proper documentation [8].Still a lot of information is with the local people and in the form of unrevealed data [9].The use of medicinal plants as medicine is a tradition in ethnic groups living in the deep forest and one among them is tribal group [10,11].For many tribal people forest products are economy source and also internally connected with habits and habitats like grouping the medicinal plants [12].There are to gather 427 tribal communities all over India.Scheduled tribal population in the country is about 5.38 million which is about 7.5% of the total population of the country [13].The estimation of the tribal people living area comprises a total of 15% in the geographical area of India [14].
Ethnic communities are isolated from civilization particularly in Anantapuram district of Andhra pradesh, India [15,16].In Anantapuram, the forest area with different tribal people located at different hill pockets.These hill regions are mainly occupied by chenchus, yerukulas, sugalis or Lambadi groups [17].These tribal caste people have knowledge about the use of phytomedicine to cure many diseases from so many years [18].Anantapuram forest area is ecologically sensitive covering different products which are used for many purposes among the group.An ethnic community mostly depends on forest products for their livelihood.The tribal people of Anantapuram district, Andhra Pradesh used to gather products from forest based on the traditional knowledge which is passed from their ethnic practices and ancient culture [19].
Previous studies reported on medicinal plants as crude drugs of few tribes and also only Goothy mandal in Anantapur district by ethnobotanists [20].This study includes information about different plant species and their signi cant use as a traditional medicine in the area of Anantapuram district, Andhra Pradesh, India.The data is compiled with a list of traditional plants used as herbal drugs as alternative to allopathy medicine used in this area and recorded through eld surveys [21].In this area, knowledge on traditional medicine is passing from generation to generation particularly among only some families.Due to lack of documented report of medicinal plants and their uses in Anantapuram district, the present study to gather information on traditional knowledge in different areas of Anantapuram district.Our data is compared to other reported data of Anantapuram district whether this information is the rst time or previously published in the region [22,23].

Study Area
Anantapuram District is the largest district of Andhra Pradesh and second largest in India, one among the four of rayalaseema region, located in coordinates 14°42′N and 77°36′E (Fig. 1).The boundaries include Kurnool District-North, Kadapa-East, Chittoor-south east and Karnataka-south west and west.The District is oblong shaped and with high plain at central portion with population density 213/Km 2 .In Anantapuram district all together 24 tribal communities are present at different locations.Anantapuram district has highest tribal community literacy rate when compared to other districts of rayalaseema region.We selected thandas and tibal areas of Madakasira, Kundurpthi, Bukkarayasamudram, Karakamukkala, Rayalacheruvu and Venkatapuram of Anantapuram district for survey.

Soils and climate
The climate is moderate to very hot in normal days with low rain fall and predominant with red soil when compared to black soil.This region has more species with abundant medicinal properties because of low water levels and rich minerals in the soil.Every year low rain fall is recorded in the district and no water running rivers are available expect Penna river.

Collection of data and survey
The data was collected in all seasons at selected tribal areas of Anantapuram district to cover selected areas in a year.Four hundred fteen individuals of traditional practioners and villagers were selected for interview (Table 1).Each eld exploration was 10-15 days duration covering 2-3 tribal pockets in adjacent areas [24].The rst day of the village was used to collect data about tribal believes, customs, food habits, practices and other regular information from the village head, cross checked with the literature for con rmation and documented [25].In next two to three days ethno botanical uses of medicinal plants available at that region was gathered by local practitioners and herbal doctors [26].Also the part of plant used for particular disease, method and time required in curing disease by the medicinal plant, mode of administration, ingredients used additionally, dosage duration were collected and recorded.The most common treatments which are cured by herbal treatment like pain, headache, fever, wounds and burns were also recorded [27].This collection of data was done during all seasons in same areas and con rming the data collected along with gathering of additional information.Several discussions were made with local people at different times for not only collecting data but also to con rm the use of medicinal plants recorded at other places.

Herbarium preparation and Preservation
The information about usage, dosage, mode of preparation and administration was recorded and stored [28].The village leaders, traditional medicine users, doctors and tribal people were chosen for interviews and cross checked to nd whether collected information is true or false by herbal practitioners (Fig. 2).
The plant species was further con rmed and compared by authenticated specimens present at Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapuram, Andhra Pradesh.The collected specimens were deposited at Department of Botany Herbarium, S.S.B.N.Degree College, Anantapuram.The nomenclature of the collected specimen was done accordingly Bentham and Hooker system of classi cation following the arrangement of ora in presidency of Chennai [29].

Informants consensus factor (F IC )
Homogeneity of the given information by the ethnic groups was calculated by Informants consensus factor.The F IC values are calculated using given following formula [30,31].
Where Nur and Nt are the total number of used reports in a disease category by people and total number of species used to treat that particular category by people respectively.

Fidelity level value
The delity level (FL), the percentage of people using plants for the same major diseases was calculated using following equation [32].
Where Ip is the total number of people who suggested particular plant species for a disease separately and Iu is the number of people informed the same plant for any disease.

Statistical study
The data collected on the traditional medicinal plants from Anantapuram district, documented using MS o ce excel software.The scienti c name, local name and mode of administration were tabulated.The data on parts used, habit and diseases were represented in the form of gures based on the collected data.

Results And Discussion
A total of 415 informants (195 males and 220 females) ranging from 30 and 60 years, in which 53.02% males and 46.98% females are interviewed (Table 1).

Ethanobotanical applications
This investigation showed that in Anantapuram region 66 species and 64 genera belonging to 42 families to cure 16 human ailments.The data collected about ethnomedicinal plants from ethnic communities arranged alphabetically along with local names and medicinal uses (Table 3).The shrubs are more when compared to other habits due to high elevation ranges of the study site where shrubs are higher when compare to trees [33].In the observation it was noticed that ethnic groups collect plants in wild forms due to poor cultivation of these medicinal plants [34].Also the availability of these medicinal plants are less in number in the forests and if used in large amounts for medicinal purposes, in long term there is a chance of extinction from habitat.The people are collecting fresh plants and their parts from forest for the treatment as there is no storage method most of the other parts are in wastage form.The shrub was primary sources of medicine with 35%, followed by Tree 30%, Herb 21%, Twinner 5%, Straggle 5%, Climber 1%, Vine 1% and Thorny bush (2%) (Fig. 3).This study is similar to some other previously reported studies [35][36][37][38].

Plant parts used for treatment
The present information is about knowledge of ethnic people using native plants as medicine in the selected area.The information given by the rural people of Anantapuram district is valuable and has great importance in ethno botanical research.The common plant parts used are leaves, root, stem, bark, wood, seeds, owers, latex, fruits and whole plant for different purposes.Similar survey was conducted in Anantapuram district and identi ed some important medicinal plants used for different diseases.Due to less availability of ethno botanical data of medicinal plants at Anantapuram district, we selected different regions and different methods to collect information.The treatment is based on various formulations which are prepared from single plant part for single disease and also in combination with other plants.The used plant parts in this study for preparations were leaves 37%, root 16%, seed 11%, stem 8%, Fruit 7%, whole plant 7%, Latex 5%, wood 3%, Rhizome 3%, Flower 1%, Resin 1%, and Tuber 1% (Fig. 4).The uses of different plant parts for human ailments are in similar to other reports [39,40].

Forms of medication
use medicinal plants and their parts in different forms depends on the type of the disease.Mostly for skin disease paste or ointment form is required and for intestinal disorders oral form of medicine is suitable [41].In this study we observed that skin disorders are treated more than other diseases and Paste form is highest used among medication.Paste (29%) was most commonly used followed by Plant juice (18%), Extract (13%), decoction (12%), powder (17%) Latex (8%) Eaten raw (2%) and Seed oil (1%) (Fig. 5).These studies were matched with other reports in other ethnic groups [42][43][44].

Mode of Administration
The traditional medicine was given in different methods depending on the availability.Among different methods, the mode of Administration is as Oral 51%, followed by Ointment 22%, Body lotion 15%, Ear drops 7%, Spray 3%, Eye drops 1% and Nostril drops 1% (Fig. 6).Similarly other reporters identi ed same results supporting the data [45][46][47].

Taxonomy of Medicinal Plants
From the collected, 66 medicinal plants of 66 species and 64 genera from 42 families were recorded in Anantapuram region.Apocynaceae and Euphorbiaceae represented the highest number of medicinal plants (5), which was followed by Convolvulaceae and Malvaceae (3) Asclepiadoideae (2), Lythraceae (1) (Table 4).However, other researches recorded that Lamiaceae, Orchidaceae, Asteraceae [48,49] families has highest number of medicinal plants.Informants consensus factors provide reliability for the given information in ethano botanical studies.The treated diseases were divided into 16 categories and for each disease the used report and number of taxa were recorded (Table 5).From the results of F IC it was con rmed that Intestinal disorders (0.95%) has highest agreement of F IC , followed by Toothache (0.92%), Fever (0.92%), Snake bite (0.90%), Eye drops (0.9%), Dermatological (0.89%), Headache (0.88%), Hair shampoo (0.87%), Cut and Wounds (0.85%), Boils and Burns (0.84%), Bronchitis/cough (0.83%), Earache (0.82%), Pain (0.82%), Antihelmintic (0.81%), Diabetes (0.81%) and Stress (0.63%).Similar to this work, other reports showed the F IC values as an important method in ethno botanical surveys [50][51][52] showed that information given by local tribal people on traditional plant species using for diseases are still in practice in this region and has been coming from so many generations among speci c families.

Fidelity level (FL) value
In order to nd species importance for given disease delity level values were calculated and recorded.
Fidelity level is measured by calculating medicinal plants which are described by at least ve or more members for being used for the taken disease and once considered plant was not taken for another disease.According to Fidelity level, the most important medicinal plant species were Hemidesmus indicus (Stress FL = 92.3%)followed by Ammannia baccifera (Skin disease FL = 85.7%) and Gymnema sylvestre (Diabetes FL = 85.7%) (Table 6).Among the plant species Opuntia stricta showed less Fidelity level (cough 42.8%).Similar studies were reported showing the Fidelity level values from previous reports [53][54][55].

Conclusion
The present study on ethno botanical and traditional medicinal practices of Anantapuram district showed ethnic groups depends and uses different medicinal plants to cure diseases.This work included the medicinal plant species available with traditional values at Anantapuram region which are not reported or documented in mentioned diseases.To cure diseases which are commonly seen like fever to uncommon diseases like psoriasis, ulcers etc. are treated using plant parts in different forms and doses.However, the usage of plants traditionally and understanding the mechanism is on traditional believes.So, from these medicinal plants bioactive compounds can be identi ed and further used for developing drug.The drug development from plants will be an important contribution to cure many dangerous diseases in the society.Our studies identi ed some important medicinal plants and their form of usage for different diseases by the tribal people.In order to protect and preserve plants in their natural habitat, establishment of medicinal gardens of ex-situ conservation with the help of ethnic communities by regular monitoring and evaluation is needed.The reported plants of Anantapuram region can be screened for compounds with therapeutic values using phytochemical and biochemical studies.This validation may help in identifying drugs from plants which can be used as drugs for inevitable diseases like cancer.

Figure 1 Study
Figure 1

Table 1
Age and Sex characteristics of participants interviewed in tribal areas of Anantapuram,

age group around 30 are high and below 20 are less in
number.In males age group of 20 are high in number and below 20 are less in number.The average age of the informants was 40 year old.Illiteracy rate was high in females (30.76%) than male (25.01%) and in females literacy rate at primary level was 27.69%, middle level 24.61%, secondary level 12.83% and University level 4.11%.In males literacy rate at primary level was 15.91%, middle level 20.91%, secondary level 23.63% and University level 14.54%.The literacy rate gradually increased from primary to university in males whereas in females it is decreased in our observation (Table2).

Table 3 :
Ethano botanical studies and application of medicinal plants identified at Anantapuram district, India

Table 4
Diversity of different species and familes in Anantapuram district

Table 6
Fidelity level value of different medicinal plants against given disease