Traditional herbal medicines practiced by the ethnic people in Sathyamangalam forests of Western Ghats, India

Our study exhibited the importance of plant sources to human welfare which can serve as a key for discovery of potential new drugs. Through the results of our explorative field survey and previous reports, Andrographis alata, Aristolochia bracteolata, Aristolochia tagala, Bulbophylum fuscopurpureum, Canarium strictum, Cinnamomum tamala, Curculigo orchioides, Ipomoea obscura, Mucuna pruriens, Pandanus odoardii and Tylophora asthmatica were investigated pharmacologically, as these plants were frequently used by studied ethnic people. So we suggest that there is a need for more future scientific research on these plants to determine their efficacy and safety based on their associated ethnomedicinal uses documented in the present study.