ABSTRACT:
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory autoimmune disorder. Its exact cause is unknown and it affects people of different age groups and sexes. Mahasamund district is situated in Eastern region of Chhattisgarh with an altitude of 318 m above sea level and lies between 20 47 to 21°31'30" latitude and 82 00 to 83 15'45" longitude. This region of Chhattisgarh provides an important example that demonstrates the importance of local and traditional knowledge in the treatment of RA. The study provides ethnomedicinal importance of medicinal plants involved for the cure of RA on the basis of traditional plant usage and practices. The information was collected through the in-depth interviews and questionnaire cum-schedule for collecting the ethnobotanical data with respect to discase. It involved various plant parts for the curing of RA along with the formulations for the curative purpose. The dose for pediatric and geriatric patient varied but significant and scientific measurement of dosage was not seen. The study revealed that the formulations for curing RA with different modes of administration were used. It was seen that 39 medicinal plant species from 28 different genera belonging to 19 families were used for curing RA. Most of the plant species were native to Mahasamund and the plant species mostly belonged to family Fabaceae (21%) followed by Apocynaceae, Araceae, Solanaceae and Zingiberaceae (7%). Among the plant parts used, frequently used part was root (36%), followed by leaf and fruit (14%), tuber (10%) and seed (8%). The present study depicted that many medicinal plants have anti arthritic activity and are potential candidate for curing RA. Thus the data might be promising for discovery of potential phytomolecules for RA.