Volume 17, Issue 39, January - June, 2023

Ethnomedicinal study of the khumi indigenous community in Bandarban district, Bangladesh

Md Salah Uddin^1♦, Vashkar Chowdhury², Shaikh Bokhtear Uddin²

¹Department of Biology, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea Republic
²Ethnobotany and Pharmacognosy Lab, Department of Botany, University of Chittagong, Chattogram 4331, Bangladesh

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Biology, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea Republic

ABSTRACT

The current study documents the traditional healers' concept of ethnomedicine among the indigenous Khumi community in Bangladesh's Bandarban Hill District. A Khumi ethnomedical study was done for the first time in Bangladesh. We set out to record ethnomedicinal knowledge from both traditional healers and elder members of the community in order to collect and document all information on plant use and preserve it for future generations. We specifically sought to draw attention to brand-new ethnomedicinal plant species and their therapeutic advantages. There are 87 plant species with Khumi names in total and 67 diseases and illnesses are treated with them. These species, which come from 83 genera and 49 families, are listed alphabetically with the family, Khumi name, parts used, illness treated, preparation method and mode of use. This study demonstrated that the Khumi community still heavily relies on ethnomedicinal plants to cure a variety of maladies and disorders and that several of these plants are being employed in novel ways or for the first time in medicinal contexts.

Keywords: Ethnomedicine, Khumi, Bandarban, Bangladesh

Drug Discovery, 2023, 17(39), e3dd1004

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi.v17i39.e3dd1004

Published: 20 January 2023