Traditional herbal healing practices for the treatment of Malaria and associated symptoms by Miju-Mishmi tribe of Lohit district, Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India


 Background: Miju-Mishmi tribe of Lohit district have been practising traditional herbal medicine for curing various ailments including malaria. Present study investigated the traditionally used antimalarial plants and their mode of preparation by Miju-Mishmi tribe to cure malaria and associated symptoms. Also, to explore their biological relevance and phytopharmacological confirmation about the presence of secondary metabolites. Methods: The study was conducted in three villages of Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh., viz. Karhe, ZiroBasti and Telluliang village. Semi-structured interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted with purposively selected interviewees including traditional healers, herb sellers, cured patients, and elderly knowledgeable persons. To understand the popularity of each medicinal plant, systematic analysis of ethnobotanical indices, viz., Fidelity Level, Preference Ranking, Use Value, Informant Consensus Factor and Formulation Score were calculated. Qualitative phytochemical profiling was performed for the plants whose PR % scores ≥ 65 and FL scores ≥ 80%.Results: A of total 79 medicinal plants belonging to 50 families and 71 genera were used in twenty-nine ethnomedicinal formulations. Among these, twenty-four plants were reported to be newly used. Mostly leaves (30.38%) of the herbaceous species (48.10%) were used in different formulations. Maximum formulations were prescribed for internal application (83.54%) with wide utility of extraction (25.81%) followed by decoction (22.58%) mode. The highest fidelity value (≥ 80%) was reported for Aconitum heterophyllum followed by Paris polyphylla, Coptis teeta, Euphorbia neriifolia, Holarrhena pubescens, Tinospora cordifolia, Andrographis paniculata. The highest PR value (≥ 65%) was account for C. teeta, followed by T. cordifolia, A. nilagirica and P. polyphylla for curing malaria fever. The UV index ranges between 0.07 to 0.87, with highest ranking reported for C. teeta (UV=0.87). Species like A. heterophyllum, Andrographis paniculata, Artemisia nilagirica, C. teeta, Holarrhena pubescens, and P. polyphylla are in high market demand. Preliminary qualitative phytochemical profiling of selected plants has confirmed their therapeutic efficacy against malaria.Conclusion: Indigenous Miju-Mishmi people have a great knowledge of antimalarial medicinal plants, which requires a proper documentation. There is an enormous probability of getting many effective antimalarial leads from the reported indigenous plants of Mishmi hills for discovery of new drugs.

metabolites present therein. This would be signi cantly bene cial for the authentication of traditional herbal medicine used by the rural society and also help towards pharmacological research for new anti-malarial drug discoveries.

Methods Study Area
Arunachal Pradesh is the largest state among all the eight states in Northeast India, covering an area of 83,473 km 2 and sharing its boundary with Assam and Nagaland in the South, Tibet (China) in the North and North East, Bhutan in the West and Myanmar in the East. Geographically, the area is recognized as Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot by IUCN [14] and exceptionally rich in ethnic culture and biological diversity [15]. The Mishmi Hills (95 0 49'-95 0 59' N & 28 0 06'-28 0 23'E) is located in the eastern region of A.P. with altitude varies from 400-3568 m. The major part of the Mishmi Hills is in the Dibang Valley, followed by Anjaw and Lohit districts.
Lohit district is covering about ~2,402 km 2 area with district headquarter located at Tezu. The vegetation is characterized by tropical evergreen forests (up to 900m), subtropical and temperate forests (900-1800 m), temperate broadleaf forest (1800-2800 m), and temperate conifer forest (2800-3500 m) [16]. The present study was conducted in three Miju-Mishmi dominated villages, viz. Karhe and Ziro Basti village in Wakro circle and Telluliang village in Tezu circle of Lohit district (Fig. 1). Karhe is a small village in Wakro Circle of Lohit district, with a total of 35 families residing. Ziro Basti is located ~3-4 Km from Karhe, inhabited by ~21 families. According to the 2011 census, the total population of Telluliang is 856 peoples and about 190 houses in Telluliang village. Tezu is the nearest town to Telluliang which is approximately 3km away.

Questionnaire-based ethnobotanical data collection
Data collection related to the ethnomedicinal practices was conducted during April, 2017 till July, 2018 from selected participants of the villages. Prior Information Consent (PIC) was obtained from all participants for ethical documentation and publication, explaining the aim and objectives of this study. A standard semi-structured questionnaire was prepared prior to conducting individual interviews including both the open and close-ended questions [17]. The questionnaire was tested in a pilot survey and designed in the English language for data collection. However, interpretation during the interview was conducted in Miju-Mishmi language with the help of a local guide and after cross-checking the name of the plants, documentation was done in English language.
The purposively selected respondents included traditional healers, cured patients, herb sellers and elderly knowledgeable persons from all three villages, viz.
Karhe, Ziro Basti and Telluliang village. Five persons were selected from each village, of which seven were traditional healers, two were herb sellers, three were cured patients and three were elderly knowledgeable persons. Among the total fteen, thirteen were male and two were female members. Age category among the respondents' ranges between 55-97, irrespective of gender. Face-to-face interviews with the help of questionnaire was carried out at an individual level, gathering information on local names of the taxa, disease cured, speci c part used for formulations, mode of preparation and administration, frequency of use and dosage, seasonal availability and market price of high scoring plants. Furthermore, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was carried out in a very informal way for the cross veri cation of data and to gather further more information on the ethnomedicinal plants available in their locality [18].

Plant collection, identi cation and herbarium preparation
Field trips were conducted for identi cation and collection of medicinal plants from wild, cultivated lands with the help of local healers, herb sellers, and elderly knowledgeable persons. All the voucher specimens were properly tagged, sun-dried, prepared herbarium, and deposited in the Botany Department of Arunachal University of Studies, A.P., India. Rare and endangered species were not collected from the eld. For phytochemical screening of those, dry samples were collected from traditional healers. Samples were authenticated according to the standard literature [19] and looking at the pictures, clicked during the eld survey in their original habitat. Scienti c names and recent accepted names' of the taxa were followed according to the plant list (http://www.theplantlist.org; http://www.catalogueo ife.org).

Ethnobotanical indices for quantitative data analysis
In order to achieve the information on popularity and potentiality of each local medicinal plant, quantitative analysis was further accomplished with ethnobotanical indices, viz., Fidelity Level (FL), Preference Ranking (PR), Use Value (UV), Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) and Formulation Score (FS). Data analysis was done by transforming the raw data into expressive information using IBM SPSS 20.0 software.
The potentiality of each local medicinal plant to cure a particular disease can be calculated by delity level (FL) based on the proportion of key informants' most preferred species against a given ailment category.

FL = Ip/Iu × 100
Where, Ip is the number of informants who independently claimed the use of a particular species for curing the same ailment and Iu the total number of informants who mentioned the plant for any major ailment [20]. Plants scoring, ≥ 80% in FL were selected for preliminary chemical pro ling.
To nd out the homogeneity of the information obtained from respondents on the reported cures for each group of diseases, the Informant Consensus Factor test was carried out. ICF values range between 0 and 1.
Whereas, Nur = Use reports' number of each disease category, Nt = Total number of species in each category [21].
Use value estimates the relative importance of each medicinal plant based on its relative use among informants and adapted by others [22]. UV was calculated using the following formula: Where, Ui indicates the number of uses cited by each respondent for a given species and N is the total number of respondents.
For preference ranking technique was carried out with the respondents from each village to identify the most preferred species for a particular ailment [17.] Respondents were asked to present the values (5=best, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = less used, 1 = least used, 0=do not know) to each plant species. The average value calculated by summing up all scores for a plant and divided by the total number of respondents and converted to percentage. Plants scoring, ≥ 65% in PR were further selected for qualitative chemical pro ling.
Since most of the dosages were given in combination form of two or more plants, therefore, scores were given to each plant variety in formulation.
Formulations including two plants were considered as diherbal formulations (DFs) and more than two were polyherbal formulations (PFs). Formulation scores for DFs, 0.5, and PFs 0.25 is given [23]. Number of times a plant was mentioned in the different formulations, the score adds up.

Selected plant material for phytochemical screening
The uninfected plant parts of A. paniculata (whole plant), A. nilagirica (leaves), C. asiatica (leaves), D. indica (fruit), E. nerifolia (leaves), H. pubescens (bark), J.adhatoda (leaves), P. foetida (leaves), T. cordifolia (leaves) were collected for phytochemical screening during their owering season. Samples were thoroughly washed with clean water and then with distilled water, chopped into small pieces, shade-dried and ground into a ne powder using Philips HL 7756/00 mixer grinder. For plant extracts preparation, 50 gm of ne ground powdered of each material was taken into a biker and added with 100 ml of methanol. The extracts were filtered using Whatman no. 1 filter paper (WHA No. 28413902, US). The extracts were concentrated to one-fourth of the total volume by keeping in a water bath set at 55°C till all the solvent got evaporated and later on, kept it for cooling. The remaining crude extract was kept in a refrigerator at 4°C for their future use in phytochemical analysis. Extractions obtained from different plant parts were subjected to various standard procedures [24,25] to identify the important secondary metabolites, viz. alkaloids, avonoids, terpenoids, saponins, tannin, carbohydrates, glycosides, proteins, phenolic compounds.

Results And Discussion
Morphological plant parts used, mode of drug preparation and utilization The present study revealed the application of a total of 79 different medicinal plants used in twenty-nine ethnomedicinal formulations (3 DFs, 26 PFs) for curing malaria fever and the other nine associated symptoms (Table 1). Among these, twenty-four plants were reported to be newly used in curing malaria fever and associated symptoms. A combination of plant parts for polyherbal remedy (89.66%) was found to be more favored and prescribed by traditional healers, than to the diherbal formulation (10.34%). It is believed that a mixture of more than two plants increases effectiveness of a formulation while phytochemicals of different plant parts react with each other leading to cure the targeted areas [24] Although, the active compounds are present in the plants, prayers and ritual recitation are the most integral parts of those traditionally prepared formulations. And therefore, there was a prayer by traditional healers before and after they handed over the dosages to their patients. Verbally these prayers/ritual recites have been transferring from one generation to the next generation. Ten plant species were gathered from the cultivated land and rest 69 species were collected from the wild habitat. Indigenous Miju-Mishmi people mostly preferred wild plants as they believe that those possess more effective healing power towards a disease. The tolerance capacity towards different environmental stresses makes those plants better survivor and coerced to produce good quality secondary bioactive compounds having great medicinal value for mankind [25].   serpentine (60) B. baccata (24) The highest number of medicinal formulations were reported in Karhe village (12), followed by Telluliang (10) and Zero Basti (7). Most of the herbaceous species (48.10%) were widely used in different formulations followed by shrubs (21.52%), trees and climber (12.66% each) and ~5 % contributed by palm, orchid and ferns. The highest number of medicinal formulations were reported in Karhe village (12), followed by Telluliang (10) and Zero Basti (7). Most of the herbaceous species (38 plants) (48.10%) were widely used in different formulations followed by shrubs (17 plants) (21.52%), trees and climber (10 plants each) (12.66%) and ~5 % contributed by palm, orchid and ferns. Higher usages of herbs, indicate their maximum availability in the study area compare to other growth forms and also might be due to their maximum e cacy against the diseases [20] and easy collection process. Similar reports also found from the other parts of the world [23,26]. Leaves (24) (30.38 %) were the most commonly used plant parts in herbal formulations followed by seventeen plants (21.52%) for their root, eight plants (10.13%) for the whole plant, rhizome and fruit, seven plants (8.86%) for bark. As leaves are the main photosynthetic organ in plants, hence they are phytochemically rich in many active compounds. Adding more to this, the collection process is convenient than the others, which makes it a key ingredient in many formulations [23]. The reported lifeforms and application of plant parts used for the herbal formulation are shown in Fig. 2.
Reported species were belonging to 50 families and 71 genera. The most predominant plant families were Asteraceae and Euphorbiaceae (6) family, followed by Lamiaceae (5), Apocynaceae (4), Apiaceae and Plantaginaceae (3), Ranunculaceae, Zingiberaceae, Acanthaceae, Menispermaceae, Verbenaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Fabaceae and Piperaceae (2) (Fig. 3). The remaining families contributing ≤ 1 species in preparation of herbal formulation. Dominance of Asteraceae and Euphorbiaceae families might be due to the wide range of distribution of plant species in Northeast India [27]. The Asteraceae family is of great importance as it includes a huge range of medicinal plants used in curing ailments like in ammatory diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis [28].
Knowledge and preference of using these plant families against malarial have been passing from one generation to the next generation. Also, it was observed that herbal practitioners were very much aware of the plant families, having speci c groups of phytochemicals in plant parts possessing antimalarial properties.
The majority of the formulations were prescribed for internal application (83.54%) and less favored for external use (16.46%). However, in both the cases, wild plants (87.34%) accounts for a higher application rate compare to the cultivated one (12.66%) (Fig. 4).
Extraction (8 formulation) (25.81%), decoction (7 formulation) (22.58%), paste and pills (5 formulation for each) (16.13 %) were some of the ancient preparation methods, signifying the fact that application of heat in herbal formulations stimulates the maximum ability of active compounds by accelerating biological reactions [29]. Plant ingredients were also applied as oil (6.9%) for massaging body and forehead, which is again a prominent part of herbal therapy, enhancing the blood circulation, reducing pain and boosting immune system. In many formulations, it was observed that some additive/items viz. honey, jaggery, curd, milk, oil were added to enhance the e cacy of the medicine along with maintaining a complementary taste/aroma. Among twenty nine herbal formulations, twelve formulations were speci cally for curing malaria fever including 38 species for both oral and external application. In many formulations, application of a particular species was reported to cure more than one ailment. For example, Berberis aristata, Coptis teeta, Paris polyphylla, Holarrhena pubescens were used extensively in various formulations of both malaria fever and diarrhorea. From all the three villages, nineteen plants were reported for curing diarrhoea, thirteen for cold, eleven for cough, seven for nausea, six for loss of appetite, ve for body pain and vomiting each and four for headache. As a post malarial treatment, patients were given oral herbal medicine for liver strengthening and anaemia, which helped to recover the patients faster. Mode of administration of herbal formulations against different ailments is shown in Fig. 5.

Quantitative analysis of FL, PR, UV, ICF and FS
The highest delity value (≥ 80%) was reported for Aconitum heterophyllum (93.33%) followed by Paris polyphylla (91.67%), Coptis teeta (90.91%), Euphorbia neriifolia (90%), Holarrhena pubescens (88.89%), Tinospora cordifolia (85.71%), Dillenia indica and Andrographis paniculata (83.33%), Centella asiatica (80%) ( Table 1). IUCN Red list categorized endangered A. heterophyllum is a terrestrial herb endemic to the foothills of Himalayas [13]. Tuberous roots of A. heterophyllum have been traditionally used in Ayurveda and a veri ed vital constituent in many Chinese and Japanese traditional medicines [30]. The species has been reported to contain antifungal, antiviral, anti-in ammatory and immune-stimulant properties, which helps to cure diarrhea, dysentery, cough, dyspepsia, and chronic enteritis and used in many parts of Bhutan, China and India [31]. PR indicates the respondent's satisfaction towards a species for its effectiveness against a disease which reveals in their scoring between 5 and 1. The output of PR showed, the highest value received by C. teeta (PR=92%), followed by T. cordifolia (PR=78.67%), A. nilagirica (PR=77.33%), and P. polyphylla (PR=76%) for curing malaria fever. Species like P. foetida (PR=77.33%), C. asiatica (PR=73.33%), P. polyphylla (PR=69.33%), C. teeta (PR=68%) were among the highly scored PR plants to cure diarrhoea. Plants scoring ≥ 65% against different ailments in PR ranking tabulated in Table 2. It has been observed that highly ranked PR and FL species, selected for the curing the malaria were mostly bitter, viz., roots of A. heterophyllum, rhizome of C. teeta and P. polyphylla, leaves of T. cordifolia, A. paniculata, and A. nilagirica. In local belief, bitterness acts like an antidote, which helps to kill the germs in the blood stream and cure malaria from its root cause. The similar concept of herbal drug use seems to be followed by many tribal societies throughout the globe [32].  Endemic C. teeta (locally popular as Mishmi teeta) is one of the most signi cantly used traditional herbs among the Mishmi community of A.P. As a representative of the total population, India (A.P.) harbor about 90% of this species and the remaining population is con ned to China (Yunnan). The wide utility of this species in traditional Chinese medicine and in other South Asian countries, has created a high market demand of this species, which leads to unregulated collection [33]. As a consequence, the population has declined over 60%, leading C. teeta in the IUCN Red List category as endangered species (A2cd ver 3.1) and included in Category II of CITES [34]. Similarly, P. polyphylla is another most demanding and widely used traditional herbal medicine in Bhutan, India, China, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam. Though the species has not been enlisted in global IUCN Red List, but the inclusion of species in CITES Appendix II (Art. IV 2.a) indicates the overharvesting and decline of its population in China, India, and Nepal due to commercial trade [35]. Use of A. nilagirica has previously reported from A.P. by Galo tribe and Monpa tribe [36] Adi and Nishy tribe [37] and Hill Miri tribe [9]. Present study adding new reports on its utilization for curing malaria and associated symptoms. Euphorbia neriifolia has identi ed as the highest PR species for curing cold (65.33%) and body pain (66.67%) during malaria. Previous reports also reveal the wide utility of E. neriifolia against cold and cough [38]. Miju-Mishmi people have also learned to apply the herbs to massage the body, including species viz., E. neriifolia, A. nervosa, C. tiglium, D. pentaphylla, E. phaseoloides. It is believed that, along with the oral administration, body massaging with certain herbs helps to reduce the body temperature, releasing sweats and relaxing the body muscles [39]. The UV index of the reported medicinal species ranges between 0.07 to 0.87. The highest UV was reported for C. teeta, (UV=0.87) followed by P. polyphylla, P. nigrum, Z. o cinale (UV=0.80, for each species), T. cordifolia, P. longum, O. indicum (UV=0.73, for each species), A. paniculata, M. minuta, O. corniculata (UV=0.67, for each species). These outcomes demonstrate the local availability of above mentioned species and their profound cognizance of indigenous peoples, which makes extensive use of those species in different herbal formulations. The native species of Mishmi Hills, i.e. Mishmi teeta or C. teeta used to cure eye diseases, jaundice, skin problem, stomach disorder, constipation, urine disorders, typhoid and tuberculosis [33]. From very ancient time, spices king P. nigrum or black piper and Z. o cinale, has been extensively used in Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani medicine to cure cold, cough, asthma, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, constipation, indigestion [40,41]. Similarly, A. paniculata, M. minuta, O. corniculata and T. cordifolia has wide utility as vermicidal, analgesic, antibacterial, heart diseases, leprosy, arthritis, antiviral, hepatoprotective, diabetes, and hepatitis [26,42].
To determine the ICF, the reported ailments were classi ed into eleven categories, viz., malaria fever, diarrhea, cold, cough, nausea, loss of appetite, vomiting, body pain, headache, liver strengthening and anaemia, based on their use reports (  Seasonal availability and market price of the highest scoring (PR and FL) plants were recorded (Fig. 6). Local market price for different herbs varies according to their seasonal availability, their forms (raw/fresh or dry form), demand in the market depending on their status (common or rare). The herb sellers stated that seasonal and highly demanding species are generally stored in dry form whenever available and bought to the market during offseason to get good returns. Species like A. heterophyllum, P. polyphylla and C. teeta are gathered from the jungle, which is very di cult to collect from those hilly terrains. All three species are exported to regional, national and international markets with high prices because of their high medicinal e cacy and wide utility in traditional medicine of Japan, China, Vietnam, Laos, and Vietnam. Although, all these three species are declared as endangered by IUCN, but because of high market demand, the species have been illegally harvested from the forest and sold to the market since long [43]. However, now some traditional healers and herb sellers have started growing these species in their lands and making them available both in fresh and dry form. The mainstream players in this chain included herb sellers mostly local harvesters, brokers, and formal vendors. Local herb sellers claimed that brokers are the highest bene ters as they buy the herbs from the local market with minimal price and exported to other countries at a high international market price. Therefore, now-a-days, local herb sellers also raised their prices in the local market ranges 1500-3000 INR per kg for the above three species. They have also mentioned that the current price of A. nilagirica (1500-3500 INR/kg), A. paniculata (1000-2500 INR/kg), H. pubescens has also increased (1700-3000 INR/kg) in the local market, as they are widely used in many traditional and Ayurvedic medicine within India and abroad. Some locally available plant parts, viz. the fruit of D. indica, leaves of P. foetida, tender twig of T. cordifolia, and leaves of C. asiatica were usually sold in the fresh form at the vegetable market in their respective seasons. Besides their medicinal uses, Miju-Mishmi people mostly prepared curry from those plant parts and also available in local markets only at a very affordable price.
Preliminary phytochemical screening of extracts Phytochemical screenings of selected plants' parts were found to contain carbohydrates, alkaloids, avonoids, terpenoids, tannin, saponins, proteins, phenolic compounds and glycosides, having valuable therapeutic index (Table 4). Previous studies have shown that plant-based alkaloid groups exhibit diverse biological activities, as they form structurally diversi ed compounds of nitrogen atom in the heterocyclic ring, which are derived from the amino acids [25]. A known alkaloid, coptisine belonging to the protoberberine class was derived from Coptidis rhizome, a herb frequently used in many traditional formulas for anti-malaria properties. Beside alkaloids, genus coptis has also reported to contain avonoids, glycosides of various types, which are having anti-tumour, anti-microbial, anti-in ammatory, antioxidant, nematicide, anti-coronary, anti-diarrheal, antiandrogenic properties [44,33]. Phytochemical investigation of an alkaloidal extract of H. pubescens roots has shown the isolation of a new pregnene-type alkaloid, mokluangin, along with nine other steroidal alkaloids [45]. Flavonoids are one of the important groups of plant secondary metabolites, which received considerable attention because of their antiviral, antiplasmodial, and antibacterial activity. Species like A. paniculata (whole plant), A. nilagirica (leaves), C. teeta (rhizome), D. indica (fruit), E. nerifolia (leaves), H. pubescens (bark), P. foetida (leaves), P. polyphylla (rhizome), T. cordifolia (leaves) were found to have avonoids in the present study. Previous reviews have also elucidates the potential antiplasmodial role of avonoids. The e ciency of some monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes on Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium berghei as potential antimalarial drugs has also been reported [46] The plant extracts containing saponin have been documented as a stimulating agent and a tonic in Chinese and Japanese herbal medicine [47]. Among secondary metabolites, phenolic compounds have shown diverse chemical structures ranging from simple to more complex polymerized compounds and therefore, showing different activities like anti-allergic, antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, anti-in ammatory, cardioprotective, anti-arthritic [48]. Previous studies demonstrate that the phenolic compound found in A. nilagirica has substantial anti-cancerous and antioxidative activity [49]. Also, these phenolic compounds show antioxidative and antibacterial properties, when extracted from various parts of A. paniculata [50], C. asiatica [51], J. adhatoda [52], P. foetida [53], P. polyphylla [35]. H. pubescens along with antidiabetic activity [54]. In T. cordifolia, pharmacological activities of phenolic compounds have shown antifungal, anticancer, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties [55]. It is considered that because of the presence of these essential secondary metabolites, most of the plants are widely used in the Indian system of medicine (ISM) since long and hence also popularity re ex among the ethnic tribe of different corners of India.
As this was a human information based and survey oriented study, therefore, there were certain problems encountered during eld work. Because of the hilly terrain and humid sub-tropical climate, conducting eld study for sample collection during the monsoon season was di cult. The local participants including guides were also unwilling to visit the eld during this period. Some respondents were over approaching during the interview, while some others were more reluctant. Initially, herb sellers and traditional healer were not interestest to disclose their herbal formulation. Some of them did not participated, even after describing the objectives of the study.

Conclusions
Indigenous Miju-Mishmi people of Arunachal Pradesh have been following the culture of ethnomedicinal practice for the treatment of malaria and are transmitted from one generation to the next by verbal instructions. The knowledge of medicinal plant collection, processing and preparation of herbal formulations has been con ned to old age people only. At this point, a thoughtful documentation and preservation of this incredible treasure of traditional knowledge is very crucial for future generations and scienti c importance as well. The present investigation reveals the use of a total of seventy-nine medicinal plants, of which twenty-four plants were reported to be newly used to cure malaria. The wide utility of some endemic and threatened species has also been reported, viz. Paris polyphylla, Coptis teeta, Aconitum heterophyllum. Despite their ecologically sensitive status, the high e cacy of these plants brings them high market demand and hence local traders knowingly or unknowingly collecting those species in an unscienti c way. In this situation, the implementation of regeneration techniques and sustainable harvesting is required to conserve and protect these important species. Also, there is an enormous probability of getting many active constituents responsible against malaria from these indigenous plants found in Mishmi Hills. Preliminary qualitative phytochemical pro ling of selected plants has already con rmed their therapeutic e cacy against malaria and other associated symptoms. Compound showing signi cant activity should be screened for antiplasmodial activity by in vitro and in vivo standard tests to justify the scienti c validation of tribal claims. Finally, the information established in the present work would convince the pharmaceutical and herbal drug industries for the exploration of highly effective antimalarial leads that will be persistent with maximum precision for synergistic effect against Plasmodium species.  Lifeforms and plant parts used for herbal formulation preparation Number of formulations preparation mode used against malaria and associated symptoms Availability of highest scoring plants with their (mini. and maxi.) market price.