Some medicinal plants with anti -fertility potential used by the tribal people of the District Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India

Abstract

The increase in population is becoming a comprehensive dilemma, causing much pressure alternative medicine for anti-fertility action. Ayurveda and other Indian literature mention the use of plants in various human ailments. India has about more than 45000 plant species and among them several thousand are claimed to possess medicinal properties. Researchers conducted in the last few decades on the plants mentioned in ancient literature or used traditionally for anti-fertility action. This review reveals that some plants and their part used having anti-fertility action, which are helpful for researcher to develop new herbal anti-fertility formulations. In the recent years, interest in drugs of plant origin has been progressively increased. The Koch Rajbangshi people use various wild and cultivated plants as medicine for curing different diseases. They completely or partially depend upon these plants for curing various diseases. The plants are mostly used as first aid treatment in most of the diseases. In almost every village there is a medical man who generally knows the traditional uses of the plants. There are some ritual believes also associated with these medicinal plants or ethnomedicines. A good number of these plants are also included in their daily diet. Above all, the plants have also some market value, thus playing an important socio-economic role among the people of the various tribal people. With the use of modern day medical techniques the traditional health care system is now at the verge of extinction. In the present work, the Researcher tried to document the plants used for the medicinal purposes in the, District Cooch Behar or Koch Bihar of the North Bengal region. To create a database of traditional knowledge and use pattern of some plants with infertility potential by Koch or Rajbangshi people in the region all the plants with its uses are documented in this study.