Ethnomedicinal plants used for snake envenomation by folk traditional practitioners from Kallar forest region of South Western Ghats, Kerala, India

BACKGROUND: The traditional medicinal systems of Indian folklore abundantly use medicinal plants or its derivatives for the treatment of snakebites. However, this traditional knowledge is on the verge of extinction, and there is an immediate necessity to conserve this oral traditional knowledge primarily by proper documentation and scientific authentication. The present ethno botanical study carried out among the folk medicine practitioners in the rural settle mental areas of Kallar forest region of southern Kerala, aims to document the folk herbal knowledge particularly for snake envenomation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The survey was conducted during the period of June 2012-July 2013 in the rural and forest settlement areas of Kallar in the Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. Direct observation and oral communications with local folk medicine practitioners in this region were adopted to collect valid information regarding the herbal formulations used to treat snake bite patients. RESULTS: The study enumerates a list of 24 plant species belonging to seventeen families with anti-venomous potential. The scientific, vernacular and family names of these plants, along with the part used and their application modes are also enumerated in this communication. CONCLUSIONS: Plants are believed to be potent snake bite antidotes from centuries back, and knowledge about the use of plants is strictly conserved among tribes through generations without recorded data. It is the need of the hour to document these old drug formulations and is the cardinal responsibility of the scientific community to validate it and come up with new potent drug molecule for the benefit of snake bite victims.