Study of Ethnomedicinal Plants Used by the Mishing People for Diarrhea Disease

The main aim of the present study is to collect information and identify the specimens of ethnobotanical plants used for the treatment of diarrhoeal disease by the Mishing people of Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts, Assam. From the Dhemaji district, we have selected Jonai, Silapathar, Sissikalghar, Dhakuakhana, and Boginodi, which are selected under the Lakhimpur district purposefully. Information was collected from randomly selected households, both male and female respondents, and different age groups between 45-85 years of age. An investigation of a total of 66 plant species and 39 families was enumerated, and Rutaceae, Apiaceae, Zingiberaceae, Clusiaceae, Moraceae, and Combretaceae were the dominant families.


Introduction
Diarrhea is the most common cause of child death worldwide. It is the major killer in both the poor and developing countries. The countries that suffer the most are India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Ethiopia. According to the WHO, an estimated 2.2 million people died of diarrhea disease under 5 years of age, and there were approximately 4 billion cases of diarrhea disease worldwide every year. Though the mortality of diarrhea disease has been reduced in the last 50 years, for the impoverished children of the world, diarrhea disease appears to be the main killer of those children (Kosek et al, 2009). According to data from WHO (2015), in spite of the improvement in mortality, India was the leading cause of death among children below the age of five, killing an estimated 321 children each day with diarrhea disease. Diarrhea is one of the gastrointestinal infections caused by ingesting bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. The determination of diarrhea disease in India, the preventive, control, and better developments are to be reviewed for planning and health services among the communities (Laksminarayanan & Jayalaksmy, 2016).
The World Health Organization (WHO) studies the problem of diarrhea and using of traditional medicine practices and prevention methods for controlling the disease. This may be the valuable advantages of traditional medicine in reducing the rate of mortality in developing countries due to diarrhea (Woldeab et al, 2018).
In Assam, diarrhea is the second-highest cause of acute diarrheal disease. This is mostly seen in rural tribal areas because of their poor hygienic conditions, low socioeconomic status, poor drinking water and lack of standard healthcare services. As a result, traditional medicinal plants are used to prevent the diarrhea disease. Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts are affected by natural disasters like floods during the spring season of every year and, basically, in terms of time interval, show cases of village people causing diarrhea disease. People are illiterate, so the knowledge of traditional medicinal practices and remedies is transmitted orally from one generation to another. Therefore, this study was conducted for the exploration and documentation of the traditional medicinal plants that are used by the people of the study area.

Methodology
This study was conducted in the Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts of Assam. An intensive survey was conducted in the study area, where the elderly experienced people and traditional healers were interviewed and the medicinal knowledge was collected from them. From the Dhemaji district, we have selected Jonai, Silapathar, Sissikalghar, Dhakuakhana, and Boginodi, which are selected under the Lakhimpur district purposefully. Information was collected from randomly selected households, both male and female respondents, and different age groups between 45 and 85 years of age. A total of 243 informants and 67 respondents (56 males and 21 females) by villages and traditional plant practitioners who are familiar with the use of traditional medicine. During the current study, only the botanical name, local name, family parts used, and habitat of diarrheal diseases were tabulated.

Result and Discussion
Assam is one of the richest bio-diversities in the North-East India. Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts have rich biodiversity and varied vegetation and variable types of climatic conditions. Traditional herbal medicinal plants prepared for practical use in primary health care have a significant role in nutritional value, economic value, and protection of all environmental values. Traditional medicine has been used by practitioners to make suitable remedies from plants for curing diarrhea. It is well controlled, prevented and maintained for health using traditional medicine based on plant resources. Deal with the general public, particularly village people who are interested in medicinal plants and have knowledge of preparation methods and treatment techniques for plants used to treat a variety of ailments. They mainly believe in natural medicine plants for remedies for diarrhea disease.
The current study survey, conducted in two districts, was conducted in randomly selected houses where people rely on nature and locally found plants and plant products, which are also present in high biodiversity areas.A total of 66 plant species belonging to 39 families were enumerated. Rutaceae, Apiaceae, Zingiberaceae, Clusiaceae, Moraceae, and Combretaceae were the dominant families. These two districts experience tropical evergreen forest and tropical deciduous forest presence of bio-active compounds in many species, with a high-fidelity level reported in this study, which plants are used by the tribal community for curing various ailments. Investigated in different Mishing communities, trees are dominant with 31 plant species, and the second dominant herb has 22 plant species, and less in creeper with 1 plant species. Different plant parts are extensively used for curing diseases where leaves account for 34.84% of the total, with less use in stems, seeds, and bark (only 1 plant species, 1.51%).

Conclusion
It can be concluded that the Mishing tribe use different ethnomedicinal plants species for the treatment of the disease of diarrhea. Therefore, the researcher investigated a total of 66 plant species and 39 families were enumerated of dominant families were Rutaceae, apiaceae, zingiberaceae, clusiaceae, moraceae and combretaceae. The documentation of these ethnobotanical plants of this study will help in formulation of potential raw materials in modern pharmaceutical industry. 33% 6% 47% 12% 2%