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Chitwan, Nepal (Dangol, 2008). Joseph and Kharkongor (1981) reports use of its fruits as a

Fish bait in Khasi & Jaintia hills, Meghalaya in eastern India. Twigs of Lantana are used as
toothbrush by tribal communities of Rajasthan in western India (Singh and Pandey, 1998). Its

stem and whole plant are used for making baskets and also used as hedge by tribal people in
Kalakad Mundan-thurai Tiger Reserve, southern India (Ayyanar and Ignacimuthu, 2010).

Flowers are used as sacred thread (Rakhi) by tribal girls of Rajasthan for Rakshabandhan
festival (Jain and Sharma, 2015).

Hernandez et al. (2003) have reported Lantana as one of the 44 major plant species

utilized to treat gastrointestinal diseases by traditional healers of Zapotitlán de las Salinas,
Puebla in México. In Hafizabad district at Punjab-Pakistan, leaf, flower and root extract of

Lantana are used by local people for treatment of headache, ringworm, injuries, toothache,

malaria, rheumatism, cuts and wounds, cold and cough (Umair et al., 2017). Lantana has also
been reported as one of the most frequently used plant species for treatment of infectious

diseases by 418 native healers in Guinea, West Africa (Magassouba et al., 2007). It is also
utilized for treatment of wounds by Kaili Inde tribe in Mantikole, located at Palu Central

Sulawesi Indonesia (Fathurrahman et al., 2016). Leaves of Lantana are utilized to cure body
pain by local people dwelling in Ejisu-Juaben municipality, Southern Ghana (Appiah et al.,

2019).

Lantana is traditionally used to repel insects in Asia and Africa. It is directly burnt in
Rusinga island and Rambira, western Kenya to repel mosquitoes (Seyoum et al., 2002) and

north-eastern Tanzania (Kweka et al., 2008). Bhardwaj et al. (2011) have reported insect
repellant uses of its leaves and flowers in Aravalli Hill range of India. Similarly, leaves of

Lantana have also been used by people of Budondo Subcounty, Jinja District, Uganda to
repel House Fly (Baana et al., 2018). These insect-repellant properties of Lantana have been

scientifically validated in various studies and discussed in the later part of this chapter.

Table 1: Ethnomedicinal uses of various parts of Lantana in India
Plant part Ethnomedicinal uses

*
Root Boil, Burn, Colic, Snakebite, Swelling, Toothache, Wound
*
Root bark Cold, Fever
*
Stem Bark Malaria
#
Leaf Ringworm

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