Mangrove plants and traditional Ayurvedic practitioners in Sundarbans region of West Bengal, India

The Sundarbans is the world's largest delta and continuous mangrove forest, classified as moist tropical seral forest, comprising a mosaic of beach forest and tidal forest, located in Bangladesh and in the West Bengal, India. The Sundarbans has a population of over 4 million. The island based habitation within the Sundarbans faces various hindrances to normal daily life which forced the local habitants to develop their own unique way of living. In this situation, very long time back, local people have identified the medicinal properties of the mangrove plants. They have used different mangrove plants in different forms as medicine to cure some common as well as chronic ailments like fever, malaria, cold and cough, bronchitis, asthma, skin diseases, ulcers, leprosy, small pox, diarrhoea, dysentery, diabetes, infertility, etc. In our study, we have tried to document the medicinal uses of Sundarbans mangrove plants by collecting data from local people with special emphasis to the traditional ayurvedic practitioners (Vaidya, Gunin, Ojha, Baule, etc.). Altogether 35 mangrove species having medicinal values were recorded among which 23 trees, seven shrubs, three herbs, one semi-deciduous tree and one woody climbing shrub under 20 botanical families which were used to cure ailments commonly by the local healers.