ABSTRACT:
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Psoriasis (Ps) are the two most common chronic inflammatory autoimmune diseases that affect approximately 1-2% people of the world. The prevalence of RA and Ps are also reported in both rural and urhan population of Chhattisgarh. The rural and trihal people of this repion are applying their traditional knowledge of medicinal plants to cure these chronic autoimmune diseases. However, there is lack of scientific and authentic documentation of their traditional knowledge in relation to treating RA and Ps. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to aggregate the traditional knowledge of the local healers of Jashpur district to cure RA and Ps by explosting the rich fora la addition an atempt was made to study the socioeconomic and standard of living status of rural and urban inhabitants and to identify the patients suffering from the autoimmune disease. The present study was conducted on 1179 households (HH) comprising 4714 individuals. Data was collected through field work during the months of January and February, 2015 through the interview-cum-schedule method. Questions were asked to the head of the HH pertaining to socio demographic, health, food habit, alcohol and tobacco consumption ete Along with this knowledge of traditional health care practices with special reference to autoimmune diseases were collected from the elder subjects and traditional healer locally known as Baiga) Independent in-depth interview was taken among the Banga to document their traditional medical knowledge and genology was traced to ascertain traditionality of their practice A data base has been maintained in MS-Excel and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS - 16 software In the present study, out of 4714 of individuals, males are found to be more 2460 (52.19%) than females 2254 (47.81%). The literacy rate is found to be higher in males (57.77% ) than females (4223%) Tobacco consumption, especially in the form of smoking is found to be prevalent in males as compare to females. A statistically significant difference was validated between socio-economicclass and standard of living index (SLI) of rural and urban households of Jashpur district. Total 0.17%, 0.11% and 0029 subjects were suffering from RA. PS and Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) respectively. It was found that important 11 medicinalplant were used for the treatment of RA and PS which belong to Asclepiadaceae, Agavaceae, Asteraceae, Combretaceae, Cucurhitaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Lecythidaceae. Liliaceae families. The study relate that documentation of traditional knowledge is important to preserve the existing knowledge for curing diseases and with further analysis we can take advantage of them for human welfare.