Status of ethnobotanical invasive plants in western Madhya Pradesh, India

Tribal community of Jhabua district uses the forest resources especially plants primarily for curing various ailments. Ethnobotanical practice has prevailed in this area since the ancient time and the invasive plants are not the exception. Thus, we documented the medicinal uses of the invasive plants. Exhaustive field surveys were conducted during 2008-2013 for the collection of the ethnobotanical data and voucher specimen. Information regarding ethnobotanical uses of plants was collected from the tribals using a semi-structured questionnaire. Several extensive reviews which studied invasive plant species are available. From this survey, a total of 102 plant species belonging to 38 families were reported for curing 37 types of ailments. Asteraceae was the dominant family and in lifeform category herbs stand dominant. Leaf is the most frequently used plant part, whereas decoction is the highly preferred preparatory method for medicine preparation in the study area. 56% of the invasive plants showed a use value of more than 0.50. This indicates the high acceptance of these plants in the primary health care. We also discussed the degree of invasiveness and habitat preference of these species. The use of invasive alien plant species relieves the pressure on the native plant species that leads to the native plant diversity conservation. Finding of this study can be used as an ethnopharmacological basis for selecting plants for future phytochemical pharmacological studies.