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STUDY AREA:

Sindhudurg is one of the coastal districts of Maharashtra state and spreads
between 15°37¹ and 16°40¹North latitude and 73°19¹ and 74°13¹East Longitude. The district

is bounded by Ratnagiri district towards the north, Kolhapur district towards the east, North
Goa district of Goa state towards the south while the Arabian Sea towards the west. The

eastern part of the district lies in the Sahyadri ranges of the Western Ghats. The vegetation of
the district comprises the tropical semi-evergreen, tropical moist deciduous, and littoral

forests. The populations of the district are using different plants available in the surrounding

for the treatment of various human and veterinary ailments and diseases.

METHODOLOGY:

Frequent field visits were made to the study area during 2017-18 for the
collection of information as well as the ethnomedicinal plants. The traditional healers and the

elder persons from the study area having sound knowledge about the ethnomedicinal plants
were interviewed with the help of a questionnaire. The plants were collected with the help of

local informers and identified by using available floras (Cooke1901, Kulkarni 1988, Yadav &
Sardesai 2002). The plants were enumerated alphabetically indicating botanical name,

vernacular name, family, plant part used, and mode of administration.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION:

Eleven plant species belonging to eight families were recorded during the
present studies. (Table 1) Out of the eleven plants, nine plants are used to treat humans while

two plants are used to treat cattle wounds. Leaves of nine plants, roots of two plants, and
latex of one plant are used for the treatment of cuts and wounds. There are some reports

regarding the use of plants for the treatment of cuts and wounds in India as well as some

other countries (Grierson et al 1999, Kuvar et al 2010, MLG Dapar et al 2020). The
references regarding the plants of ethnomedicinal importance from the district are meager

(Apate 2016).

CONCLUSION:

Lack of healthcare facilities in the remote areas of the district and easy
availability of the ethnomedicinal plants in the surrounding leads to the use of the plants for

the treatment of cuts and wounds. All the plant species recorded in the present studies are of
common occurrence in the district. Most of these plants are occurring as a weed. The

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