Utilization Pattern of Medicinal Plants by Different Tribes of Garo Hills of Meghalaya, North-East India

Use of traditional medicine is rapidly growing worldwide [1]. The practice of ethno medicine as an integral part of the culture of indigenous people in many parts of the world has a close interface with local ecosystems and cultural landscapes [2,3]. In India, medicinal plants occupy important positions in the sociocultural, spiritual and medicinal arena of rural people [4]. The hilly sub mountain ranges of Western Ghats contain valuable ethno medicinal plants in villages. Ethno medicinal plants of the region have been used for the treatment of various diseases. Jadhav [5] reported 21 plant species belonging to 15 families were used for treating various diseases. According to Shaikh et al. [6], the plants like Terminalia chebula, Moringa oliefera, Tinospora cordifolia etc. are extensively used in ayurveda as they possess potential anticancer activity. The role of Indian medicinal plants and the various photochemical may be treated effectively for cancer.


Introduction
Use of traditional medicine is rapidly growing worldwide [1]. The practice of ethno medicine as an integral part of the culture of indigenous people in many parts of the world has a close interface with local ecosystems and cultural landscapes [2,3]. In India, medicinal plants occupy important positions in the sociocultural, spiritual and medicinal arena of rural people [4]. The hilly sub mountain ranges of Western Ghats contain valuable ethno medicinal plants in villages. Ethno medicinal plants of the region have been used for the treatment of various diseases. Jadhav [5] reported 21 plant species belonging to 15 families were used for treating various diseases. According to Shaikh et al. [6], the plants like Terminalia chebula, Moringa oliefera, Tinospora cordifolia etc. are extensively used in ayurveda as they possess potential anticancer activity. The role of Indian medicinal plants and the various photochemical may be treated effectively for cancer.
North East states of India are one of the richest repositories of medicinal and aromatic plants in the world [7][8][9]. This region has high medicinal plant diversity due to variance in topography and physiognomy [10]. Numerous wild and cultivated plants play a very important and vital role among cultures. Studies on folk medicines through ethno botanical surveys are also gaining importance in the region [11]. Forty ethno medicinal plants were recorded for the 1 st time from Indo-Burma hotspot region (Mizoram, NE India) of particular ecological relevance [12]. Some medicinal plants are used by various ethnic tribes for both food as well as medicine. For example Paederia foetida is a case and because of its therapeutic properties relate to the gastrointestinal system and suggest its potential utility for gastrointestinal ailments. P. foetida is promising as a remedy for life-style related conditions, especially treatment of ulcers [13].
The Garo Hills of Meghalaya are very reach in natural resources. The most important natural resources on which the economy of the state is largely dependent upon are forests, minerals and water resources. Among all the natural resources, forests contribute maximum to the state's economy [14]. Due to the diverse climatic and topographic conditions Garo Hills forests support a vast floral diversity [15]. Garo Hills societies are predominantly dependent on the forest resources for their livelihood [16,17]. Survey on the ethno medicines by the Garo tribe of Kamrup District, Assam, has revealed that some diseases are cured by using a single plant. For example, Boerhavia diffusa is used for control of swelling of feet during the period of pregnancy. However, Zingiber officinale is also used as in the treatment of asthma [18]. According to the study made by Sharma et al. [19]

Study site
The study was carried out in Wherever necessary the translation of Garo language to English was made using a school dictionary [20].

Socio-economic profile
The total population, sex ratio and literacy rate (%) of the three studied tribes are shown in Table 1. The sex ratio of Garo and Hajong shows that males were comparatively more whereas the sex ratio of Koch tribe shows with more of female population. The literacy rate of Hajong tribe was significantly higher than the two other tribes, Garo and Koch tribes. Most of the older people of these tribes were illiterate, majority of the children were still under matriculation while only few of them were above class X. There were also some children who were school dropouts.
The pattern of occupation of the two tribes i.e. Garo and Koch were mainly agricultural activities whereas Hajong tribe were  The main sources of medicines were from the trees followed by shrubs, herbs, grasses, climbers and aquatic plants (Figure 3). Garo and Koch tribes used more medicines from trees whereas Hajongs used more from herbs and shrubs (Figures 3, 4 and Table 3).
The Garo tribe used more number of medicinal plants from the forest comparing to Hajong and Koch tribe. Garos used more species to cure An'dime (female disease after delivery) but none in both Hajong and Koch tribes. In Koch tribe more species were used for Throat cancer and Intestine cancer whereas Garo and Hajong used none.
Among the 38 plant species, they were mainly used to treat An'dime i.e., a female disease after delivery (6 species), followed by Jaundice and Pneumonia with 4 species each, throat cancer and Intestine cancer (3 species each), Komjuri i.e., weakness, fever and reluctance to eating (2 species) , Cough (2 species), Anemia (2 species), High fever (2 species mainly engaged in business especially in handloom which was their main income for daily needs. Besides agricultural activities and business in handloom, some of the family members also involved in daily labour which was also part of their daily income. The occupation of some villagers also include governmental jobs like teacher, driver and job card secretary and others like carpenter, butcher and brick factory worker. Other than these, some villagers used to collect Medicinal Plants for helping villagers and for their income.
Annual income of the households of studied tribes in Garo Hills of Meghalaya depicts that Koch tribe was somewhat better than other tribes in their income. Hajong tribe was more under middle than other two. Garo tribe was comparatively poor.

Figure 2
shows that Koch tribe tends to have better infrastructure than other tribes. Garo tribe was more under pucca + bamboo based. However, overall shows that all the tribes were somewhat same in their infrastructure.
From the survey, it has been found that the Hajong tribe used more number of televisions and the Koch tribe used more number of motors/cycles. Refrigerator users were very less in all the tribes with none by Garo tribe. It has been observed that Hajong tribe has the highest assets whereas Garo tribe has the lowest assets. Among the Garo and Koch community as much as agriculture is important their livestock also has a huge impact on their tradition. On the other hand, the Hajong community does not have much livestock. Only five livestock i.e. 4 poultry and 1 swan has been recorded during the survey. The common livestock domesticated by the Garo community was cattle, pig, goat and poultry whereas in the Koch community was cattle, goat and poultry. The total livestock population was estimated at 178 for Garo community, followed by Koch and Hajong communities having 138 and 5 respectively.    A plant part used mostly by Garo and Koch tribes was bark whereas Hajongs used mostly from the leaves. Most part of the plants used was highest in Garo tribe except for flower which is none in Garo tribe and 1 in Koch tribe (Figure 4). Parts of the plant mostly bark, leaves, young leaves and fruit were used for preparation of traditional medicines. The highest part used was bark with 11 species followed by leaves with 10 species, fruits (7 species), young leaves (7 species) root (4 species), whole plant (2 species) and flower with only 1 species (Figure 5).

Medicinal plants collected from the forest
The present study showed that the literacy rate and employment of the study areas are still low. Therefore to alleviate their socioeconomic conditions, they should be supported with better educational and employment opportunities. It was also observed that these people are the repository of traditional knowledge regarding processing and use of large numbers of plants, which could be documented and utilized with proper modifications to improve their economy. By doing so, their dependency on forests can be reduced, together with imposing limits on the loss of biodiversity and overexploitation of natural resources (Figure 6).
In the present study, 38 medicinal plants are used for the treatment of various diseases like Anemia, An'dime (A female disease after delivery), beriberi, bleeding, cancer, cough, diabetics, gastric (gastritis), high fever, insomnia, intestine cancer, jaundice, joint pain, komjuri (weakness, fever and reluctance to eating), malaria,

Conclusion
Medicinal Plants continue to play an important role for the people of Garo Hills, Meghalaya. Therefore, it is extremely essential to conserve the medicinal plants and the indigenous knowledge of Garo, Hajong and Koch tribes for curing various diseases. Special attention is also needed to further document this study systematically.