An Ethnoveterinary Survey of Medicinal Plants Used by Folk Medicinal Practitioners to Treat Cattle Diseases in Randomly Selected Areas of Bagerhat District, Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is a predominantly agricultural country containing 86,000 villages. The village population consists of mainly farmers, with the majority of them being resource-poor in the sense of having small land holdings on which they grow various crops, the major crop being paddy. Most farmers maintain one or two cows, buffaloes, or goats in their homesteads. Animals like cows or buffaloes are mainly used for plowing (use of machines like tractors cannot be afforded by the small farmers) the land or as a source for milk production, the latter being both sold as well as consumed at home. Goats are raised for selling or occasional consumption of meat. By tradition, and because of the general poverty prevalent among small farmers, they still depend on traditional medicinal practitioners for treatment of their cattle during occurrence of various cattle ailments. The traditional medicinal practitioners, known as Kavirajes or cattle Kavirajes, rely on dispensation of various medicinal plants for treatment of diverse ailments. It was the objective of the present study to conduct an ethnoveterinary survey among the Kavirajes of randomly selected villages of Bagerhat district, Bangladesh to gather information on the medicinal plants used for treatment of cattle ailments. Interviews were conducted with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire and the guided field-walk method. A total of 51 plants were noted to be used by the Kavirajes. These plants came from 29 families. The Fabaceae family provided 7 plants, followed by the Euphorbiaceae family with 4 plants, and the Acanthaceae, Combretaceae, Lamiaceae, Solanaceae, and Zingiberaceae families providing 3 plants each. The Kavirajes used medicinal plants for both curative as well as preventive purposes; however, curative purposes dominated over preventive. Twenty seven different groups of ailments were treated by the Kavirajes. Eleven plants were used for treatment of various gastrointestinal disorders in cattle suggesting that this is the most prevalent disorder among the animals. Six plants were used to increase milk production in cattle, and four plants for prevention of diseases or to protect cattle from insect bites. The various ailments treated by the Kavirajes included pox, fever, respiratory tract disorders like coughs or mucus, helminthiasis, pain, lice, mite or insect infestations, skin infections, rheumatism, swelling of throat (hemorrhagic septicemia), body deformity, urinary problems, jaundice, lameness, fractures and sprains, edema, snake bite, rabies, leg and nipple infections, burns, eye problems, foot and mouth diseases, and to stop bleeding when extensible bleeding occured after giving birth. Overall, the plants offer a cheap and alternative remedy to the farmers for treatment of ailments of their cattle, which they can scarcely afford to treat with costlier modern medicines. Key words: Folk medicine, medicinal plants, ethnoveterinary, Bagerhat district, Bangladesh