Diversity of the Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh.

CHAPTER 3

3.  Main Body

3.1. History of medicinal plants

          Since the down of modern civilization some people devote themselves to acquire knowledge on medicinal plant and day by day they become exports.

          It is proved that in the era of Babylon, people knew about medicinal plants. One thousand years ago Egyptians used different medicinal plants what we use even today.

          These are Henbane, Mandrake, Opium, Pomegrante, Aloe, Onion, Belladonna, Essential, Oil, Castor oil, Lard, Butter, Bite etc.

          After that personally the persons who strived for upgrading medicinal plants are :

          Hippocrates (450BC – 370BC) : The father of medicine. He exprimented on different medicinal plants.

          Aristotle (384BC – 322BC) : For his different contribution in the field of Biology he is called the father of Biology. He pointed out 500 medicinal plants.

          Theophrastus (370BC – 287BC) : For his extra ordinary contribution in Botany he is considered the father of Botany. He specified 500 specimen of medicinal plants.

          Dioscorides : He descibed the medicinal quality and uses of more than 1000 medicinal plants in his five volume books `DeMateria Medica’ Published in 76AD.

          Galen (131 – 200AD) : Wrote about 500 Volumes of book describing hundreds of recipes and formulations containing a large number of medicinal plants and animal products.

          The Arabian Muslim physicians like Al-Rezi and Ibn Sina (9^th to 12^th century AD) brought about a revoluation in the history of medicine by bringing new drugs of plants and meneral origin into general use.

3.2.   Classification of medicinal plants

According to the shape and size medicinal plant are 3 types.

1. Herb: Steam is soft
2. Shrub: Their steam wooden & bush shaped.
3. Tree: Their steam is wooden & branch.

On the basis of habitation medicinal plant are 5 types.

1. Desert areas medicinal plant
2. Plain land areas medicinal plant
3. Forest & Hill Tracts areas medicinal plant
4. Fresh water medicinal plant
5. Saline water medicinal plant.

3.3. Significance and Importance of medicinal plants:

In human life the significant of medicinal plant is unlimited. We get not only the food grain, dal, oil, fiber, wood, vegetable fruit but also get disease protected medicine from plant. Medicinal plant has a very valuable role to protect several diseases.

Many antibiotic such as penicillin; Streptomycin etc. which are used against several chronic diseases such as pneumonia, uretus disfunctional disease, typhoid, meningitides, peritonitis etc. Besides this medicinal plant play a significant role to control the hydrophobia, cardiac, dysentery, diarrhea, diabetics etc.

Economically and on health basis, medicinal plants is very important for the Asian people. Some importance of medicinal plants are as follows :

• Some medicinal plants are used as vegetable, spices and condiments.
• Some leguminosae medicinal plants add Nitrogen in the soil through Nitrogen fixation.
• Some medicinal plant supply vitamin in human body.
• Some medicinal plans are used as fuel, furniture’s constructions wood, Decoration materials, packaging etc.
• It helps the role of weather and rainfall.
• It prevent natural calamities and soil erosion.
• It increase soil Fertility by adding organic matter in the soil.
• Medicine is prepared from some forest plants or its root, stem, baark, leaf, flower, fruit, seced  directly or its Juice.
• Medicinal plants is the main source of Unani and Ayurbedi medicine.
• We get all components of Kabirazi and medicine from medicinal plants.
• Most of the medininal plants are collected from forest such as Amloki, Bohora, Horitoki.
• Basic elements of Alopathy and homeopathy medicine are collected from medicinal plants.
• Medicinal plants  are the main raw materials  of verious Ayurbeadi medicine  companies such as Sadona, Sree Kundesari, Sakti Farmesi etc.    of our country.
• Some medicinal plants are exported in foreign country .

3.4. Medicinal plant and it’s diversity on the basis of their habitat:

There are 722 medicinal plants in our country (A. Gani 1998). Most of them are grown in natural environment on the basis of their habitat they are classified into 5 types. Most of them are grown in different place and environment for their adaptation capacity: In below a table is presented on the basic of their habitat.

Table -02: The list of medicinal plants grows in different habitat.

SL no.	Plant group	Habitat	Local Name of the plant
01	Plain land and crop land plant	Plain land  cultivate land	Kanibashi, Ghatecochu, Khadnli, Shialkata,Kukra, Ghagra, Dondokolosh, Kalomegh,
02	Surrounding the path of Home	Marginally high land there is no water	Bashok, Bonera, Akondo, Tharkrri, Tulsi, Kuch, Kashori, Talecochu, chalta, Punornova, Dafura, Amloki,
03	Forest and Hill tracts plant	Deciduous forest, Hill tracts forast.	Bormasri, Nimaada, Nallota, Vui Nota,
04	Fresh water and waterloging land plant	Side of the canal, Hill Boure, Doba	Sadapata, Hizor, Halencha, Jolkolmi, Soale, Sapla, Saluk, Padma,
05	Coastal areas plant	Coostal area & Mangrave forest	Hargoza, Panlota, Koromcha, Junjuri, vola, Sadakolmi, Sadormala etc.

3.5.  Medicinal plant and it’s diversity on the basis of their utility:

Main Article: Diversified medicinal plants according to the usable body parts

Various species and varieties of medicinal plants have been observed in Bangladesh, India, and even throughout South Asia. Medicinal plants help us to prevent many diseases. From the time immemorial people treat with these plants. In below the most important medicinal plants are described with mention their local name, scientific name and control disease name.

You Can read this part of the essay in Bangla Language

A table has been posted Below to show the medicinal plants according to the scientific name, local Bengali name, family of the plants, parts of plants and the effectiveness of the disease. This list of about 56 species of plants, which is part of my research was published in the website Prankakoli in 2012.[1] Later, during the publication in Roddure dot com several plants species were added in the list.[2]

A total number of 56 medicinal plant species according to the usable parts of the plants has been added here. These are Achyranthes aspera, Andrographis pariculata, Andrographis pariculata, Allium cepa, Allium sativum, Asparagus recemosus, Abroma augusta, Aegle marmelos, Aloe  vera, Alstonia scholaris, Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, Ananus comosus, Azadirachta indica, Becopa moniera, Borassus flabellifer, Boerhavia repens, Bryophyllum calycium, Calotropis procera, Centella asiatica, Coccinia cordifolia, Clitoria ternatea, Dalbergia sissoo, Dolichos lablab, Hemidesmus indicus, Eoccinia cordifolia, Eclipta Prostrata, Enhydra fluctuans, Erythrina variegata, Euphorbia thymifolia, Ficus benghlensis, Ficus hispida, Ficus religiosa, Fleurya interrupta, Hygrophilla schulli, Paedaria foetida, Datura metal, Terminalia arjuna, Terminalia belerica, Terminalia Chebula, Cassia alata, Mentha viridis, Adhatoda vasica, Hydrangea arborescons, Rauvolfia Serpentina, Holarrhena pubescens, Gloriosa superba, Glycine max, Gmelina arborea, Glycyrihiza glarra, Asparagus racemosus, Syzygium cumini, Mikania scandens, Vitex negundo, Cynodon dactylon, Trapa natans, Sesbania sesban and Saraca asoca.

Please click on the 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 Page Numbers below to read the full Paper of the Diversity of Fruit Plants in Bangladesh.