Some less Known Ethnomedicinal Uses of Plants in Sunderbans, India

More thmn 100 medicinal plants belonging to 63 genera and 42 families are found in the mangrove vegetation of Sunderbans, West Bengal, India. Seved of these plant-species, e.g. Avicennia marina, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, B. parviflora, Ceriops decandra, Nypa fruticans, etc. are restricted to the marshy deltaic estuary only. After prolonged field work, and comparison with the available published literature it is seen that medicinal uses of 43 species, and one variety such as Aegialitis rotundifolia, Blumea wightiana, Ceriops decandra, Heliotropium curassavicum are practically unknown or less known.

The specimens of these species have been exhibited in crude drug museum of Pharmacognosy Section, Botanical Survey of India, Howrah.