Abstract
The medico folklore use of medicinal plants is the mainstay healthcare system of the tribals in and around the Gandhamardan, Western Odisha. These people depend on the forest and traditional Vaidyas to treat various health ailments, including bacterial infections. While documenting folklore claims, we found the acute dependency of traditional diarrhoea on 30 medicinal plants from the Gandhamardan for treating respiratory tract infections, skin diseases, wound infections, diarrhoea, and dysentery. The plant parts of these plants were collected from the wild, and their phytochemical composition was determined using aqueous and ethanol extracts. The crude extracts at different concentrations were used to elucidate their antibacterial activity based on the zone of inhibition using the agar well diffusion method using eight pathogenic bacteria. The plant extracts revealed the presence of eight secondary metabolites, viz. alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids, reducing sugar, saponins, tannins, flavonoids, and steroids. All 30 plants were very effective against all the MDR bacteria. The study would provide a scientific basis for clandestine ethnobotanical knowledge that would benefit the antimicrobial stewardship program.
Keywords: Ethnobotanical information, Gandhamardan, MDR pathogens, Medicinal plants, Antibacterial activity,
Phytochemical analysis.