Ethnomedical Value of Plants in Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu, India

The present survey was undertaken to explore the traditional knowledge of plant species found in four villages (Athamangalam, Vadukkuveli, Thalainayar and Perumangalam) in Sirkali taluk of Nagapattinam district, Tamilnadu state, The ethnomedicinal information was collected through oral interviews to village elders and vaidyas (those who cure disease by traditional methods) of the rural areas of this district. The knowledge available to the rural population of the area is transmitted only through oral language from generation to generation over time and therefore it needs to be recorded in order to be preserved. Medicinal plants are listed by botanical name, family name, local name, plant parts used and mode of preparation and the names of the diseases cured. About 50 plant species belonging to 27 families were described as effective herbal drugs for various ailments. The documented ethnobotanical uses of plants mostly related to the treatment in curing stomach pain, breast pain, headache, bleeding, yellow fever, muscle pain and blood purifier.


INTRODUCTION
The term ethnobotany was first coined by an American botanist, John Harshburger (1896), to study the plants used by the primitive and aboriginal people. Since then it has been defined as the traditional knowledge on indigenous communities, about surrounding plant diversity and as the study of how the people of particular culture and region make use of indigenous plants. Ethnobotany has its roots in Botany. Botany in turn originates in part from an interest in finding plants to help fight illness. In fact, medicine and botany have close ties. Many of today's drugs have been derived from plant resources.
Ethnobotany deals with the people of a particular culture and regions makes the use of indigenous plant while the ethnobotanist explores how plants are used for food, shelter, medicine, clothing, hunting and religious ceremonies. It is the relationship between a given society and its environment and in particular the plant world (Aumeeruddy, 1996).
The traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in India is enormous since many centuries based on different practical measures. It has been reported that traditional healers used more than 3000 plant species. Medicinal plants are considered to be the basic health care of rural households from the ancient days. A large number of medicinal plants are uninvestigated. The medicinal products from plants also have great interest in the process of drug discovery. Their vast diversity of plants in nature permits the identifications of molecules for the development of new therapeutic agents as well as biochemical and molecular mechanism of action involved in most physiological and pathological process. The medicinal properties of a plant depend upon the presence of certain chemical constituents. These chemical constituents seem to be responsible for curing disease. This chemical constituent have to be isolated, purified and identified as definite chemical compounds (Kumar and Chaturvedi, 2010).
The urbanization and industrialization lead to reduction in nature heritage, including the ethnic medicines of the Indian sub-continent. Only few of the ethnic groups in our country still retain their knowledge on the uses of medicinal plants, which are growing naturally in forests. From the literature survey, it is understood that the information available regarding the study of traditional medicines in Nagapattinam district of Tamilnadu is meager.
The rural communities, ethnic groups and folklore throughout the world are utilizing plant parts like root, stem, leaf, bark, flowers and fruits in various ways for the treatment of various ailments. An attempt has been made to record ethnomedicinally important plants and their useful parts. These plants have been successfully used in the different systems of medicines like Siddha, Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathic and other. One of the major problems with this herbal formulation is that the active ingredients are not well defined. It is important to know the active component and their molecular interaction, which will help to analyze therapeutic efficacy of the product and also to standardize the product (Jayaprasad et al., 2011).

STUDY AREA
The district of Nagapattinam lies on the shores of the Bay of Bengal between Northern Latitude 10° 46' degrees and 79° 49' degrees Eastern Longitude an area of 2716 km 2 , which has a lot of herbs, shrubs and trees of important medicinal values.

MATHODOLOGY
The present study was carried out during 2012 to 2013 to collect data on traditional uses of medicinal plants used in the preparation of crude herbal drugs by the rural area people living in Sirkali taluk of Nagapattinam district. During this surveys personal interview were conducted with the village dwellers, the herbal medicine practioners and other traditional healers. Each of the plant material was assigned field book number and documented as to family, scientific name, vernacular name (Tamil), part used and medicinal uses, Plant parts that were identified as having use in ethnobotany were collected and Recorded.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the present investigation, we recorded around 50 species belonging 27 families used as herbal medicine for the treatment of various disease like Asthma, rheumatism, diarrhea, filariasis, diabetes, and yellow fever, and other. These have been successfully used in the International Letters of Natural Sciences Vol. 17 107