Folk Knowledge and Ethnobotanical Practices in Tripura, India: A Special Focus on Plants used in the Management of Pain, Inflammation and Wound

Abstract

Plants are an important source of modern medicine. Ethnic communities/rural people largely depend on the folk medicinal system that is not documented systemically but could play a key role in drug discovery. Ethnobotanical surveys are an important tool to extract such knowledge from people transmitted mostly verbally from generation to generation. Tripura is a small state in India but is considered a storehouse of important medicinal plants. Different tribes and local people of Tripura use numerous plants in their daily life to meet medicinal needs. Several ethnobotanical surveys were conducted in Tripura and documented the medicinal use of plants. Pain, inflammation and wound are a few common problems associated with our daily life. This chapter focused on the traditional medicinal plants used in the treatment of pain, inflammation and wound by the people of Tripura.