Ethnopharmacological survey of traditional medicinal plants in tribal areas of Kodagu district, Karnataka, India

Recent trend shows a decline in the number of traditional herbal healers in the tribal areas since the younger generation is not interested to continue this tradition. Hence, there is an urgent need to record and preserve all information on plants used by different ethnic/tribal communities for various purposes before it is completely lost. In addition, several wild medicinal plants are declining in number due to deforestation and forest fires. There is need for phytochemical analysis and pharmacological investigations of these important disappearing plants to strengthen the documentation of ethnic drugs. It would help in developing novel drug(s) to treat chronic diseases.