ETHNOMEDICINAL PLANTS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

The use of ethnomedicinal plants for curing ailments has been gaining popularity all over the world because of simplicity in the treatment system, affordability to the local people, less expensive, available in nature, and effectiveness in chronic diseases. Currently, the local knowledge of ethnomedicinal plants is in danger because of inadequate scientific documentation. The present study aimed to record and validate the ethnomedicinal knowledge used by the local people for the management of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The ethnomedicinal data were collected from the selected districts of Bangladesh during the year 2018-2020 using modern ethnobotanical survey methods. During the survey, a total number of 300 local informants including 67% males and 33% of females were interviewed which were mostly farmers and housewives. The study had resulted in recording a total of 131 ethnomedicinal plant species under 61 families. The recorded plant species had been used by the people for the treatment of five (5) diseases categories related to the Cardiac problem through 114 formularies. Habit analyses of medicinal plant species showed that herbs (41%) were the leading medicinal plants followed by trees (33%), shrubs (19%), and climbers (7%). Leaves were the most regularly used plant part, with 35% application in traditional medicinal recipes, followed by fruit (26%), seed (12%), root (6%), bark (5%), whole plant (5%), flower (4%), rhizome (2%), tuber (1%), bulb (1%), latex (1%), and stem (1%). The most common medicinal families were Fabaceae, Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae, Cucurbitaceae, and Apocynaceae. Among the diseases categories highest (Fic) value was obtained in Cardiac complaints followed by Blood purifier, Chest pain, High blood pressure, and Antioxidant. The cardiac complaints were managed by a total of 80 medicinal plant species. Among the medicinal plants, the most cited were Phyllanthus emblica L., Allium sativum L., Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. Ex DC.) Wight & Arn., Achyranthes aspera L., Terminalia chebula Retz, Allium cepa L. In the blood purifier category, 76 species were used and Phyllanthus emblica L., Terminalia chebula Retz, Allium cepa L., were most cited. In the chest pain category, 20 species were used and the most cited were Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. Ex DC.) Wight & Arn., Achyranthes aspera L. In the High blood pressure category, 39 species were used and the most cited were Phyllanthus emblica L., Allium sativum L., Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. Ex DC.) Wight & Arn., Terminalia chebula Retz, Allium cepa L. In the Antioxidant category, 36 species were used and Phyllanthus emblica L, was the most cited plant. Among the 131 plant species, 45 species were scored 100% fidelity level as culturally important plant species. The record of 131 ethnomedicinal plant species with diverse use patterns reflected the traditional knowledge richness in the study area. Among the ethnomedicinal plants, 10 plant species including Phyllanthus emblica L., Allium sativum L, Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. Ex DC.) Wight & Arn, Achyranthes aspera L, Terminalia chebula Retz., Allium cepa L, Adhatoda zeylanica Nees, Cinnamomum tamala Nees & Eberm, Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp, Ipomoea aquatic Forssk, were cited maximum times by the local people. These species had been used frequently in the study area for primary healthcare also. Among the ten plant species, local use of three species named Allium cepa L, Cinnamomum tamala Nees & Eberm, and Ipomoea aquatica Forssk had been studied because of identifying the effectiveness in chronic diseases. Methanolic extract of the leaf of A. cepa, I. aquatica, and C. tamala showed 22.24 %, 28.96 %, and 58.99 % lysis of the clot respectively by using 100 µl of streptokinase as a positive thrombolytic control (30,000 I.U) on blood clots and distilled water as a negative control. It showed that the addition of 100 µl of streptokinase as a positive thrombolytic control (30000 I.U) to blood clots with 90 min of incubation at 37°C showed 68.79 % of clot lysis and distilled water was treated as a negative non-thrombolytic control, which exhibited negligible percentages of lysis of clots (2.04%). Of the three plants, C. tamala showed the highest thrombolytic activity for clot lysis rather than I. aquatica and A. cepa plants. The results were very promising. Further research is very necessary to isolate the chemicals responsible for thrombolytic potentials. Based on observations and local people perception, most cited species named Achyranthes aspera L., Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp., Andrographis paniculata Nees., Aquilaria malaccensis Lam., Dioscorea alata L., and Rauvolfia serpentina (L.) Benth. ex Kurz., were found very rare in the habitat and were also in danger because of anthropogenic pressure, deforestation, lack of knowledge about plants, and mismanagement of plantations in the study area. Based on the present study, it may be concluded that A. cepa, I. aquatica, and C. tamala might be used as traditional healing purposes of CVDs. Moreover, further animal study will prove the scientific validation of their uses. Management efforts should be provided to save A. cepa, I. aquatica, and C. tamala plants from the extinction in nature.