Studies on Ethno-medicinal plants used by the Irulas tribes of Nellithurai Beat, Karamadai Range of Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India.

S. M. Dhivya*¹ and K. Kalaichelvi^2
1PG and Research Department of Botany, Vellalar College for Women, Erode-638 012, India.
²Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Vellalar College for Women, Erode-638 012, India.

A B S T R A C T
An ethnobotanical plant survey was carried out to collect the information about the medicinal plants found in Nellithurai Beat and used by the native Irulas tribe of Karamadai Range, Western Ghats of India. The information was collected on t he basis of personal interviews and questionners with elderly traditional healers. The investigation revealed that 80 plant species belonging to 36 families are commonly used in the treatment of different diseases. The documented ethnomedicinal plants were mostly used to cure asthma, skin diseases, wound healing, diarrhoea, Anti- inflammatory, snake bite, jaundice and Anti- cancer. The medicinal plants used by the tribals are arranged alphabetically, and followed by their botanical name, family name, vernacular name (Tamil), parts used and their corresponding diseases. Generally, fresh part of the plant was used for the preparation of medicine.
Keywords: Ethnomedicines, Nellithurai beat, Irulas, Asthma and Snake bite.