Ethnobotanicals used for the Treatment of Skin Diseases with Special Emphasis on Carbuncle Disease from Purulia District of West Bengal in India

Background: From time immemorial ethnic people of Purulia district of West Bengal are well acquainted with different plant resources for the treatment of various skin diseases including 'carbuncle' and others skin diseases. Carbuncle, caused by the methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus is of major concern in this part of India, mostly dominated by tribes like Majhi, Munda, Santal, Birhor, Ho and Rajwar etc. Hot climate, overcrowded households, improper sanitation, very poor economic background and frequent burn accidents are of major issues for spreading of these bacterial infections. Objective: Present authors are trying to summarize these ethno-medicinal knowledge of the local, conservative traditional healers by using structured questionnaires given to them and are trying to analyze these information from scientific perspective. Materials and Methods: Plant samples were collected from March 2014 to May 2016, mostly during their flowering stage and a total of 62 people, both male (84%) and female (16%) were interviewed. Informant consensus factor, fidelity level and use value were calculated. Results: Fifty-nine herbal plants belongs to 35 families were recorded for the cure of various skin diseases, among which 10 plants are used individually during medication whereas 9 polyherbal formulations were used in various combinations during treatment. Five species of the families Moraceae and Asteraceae was found to be the most common medicinal plants, among which 44.89% are herbaceous in habit. Leaves (55.55%) are the most common plant part for their use. Conclusion: Therefore, the present paper has been written to document this rapidly vanishing huge knowledge of folklore which should be digitally conserved for futuristic approach on medicinal plants in India.