An ethnobotanical survey for the determination of informant consensus factor to demystify traditional herb Teliya-kanda in Indian medicinal system

Abstract

Teliya-kanda is among one of the miraculous plants which has been described in ancient Ayurvedic text for veritable medicinal uses. However, the taxonomic identification of Teliya-kanda plant is yet ambiguous. Following a semi-structured survey methodology, we carried out questionnaire based interviews with 250 native tribals and traditional healers/ vaidyas of villages in the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand (22 remote villages). The participants involve in the study were consulted about their knowledge towards the target plant species Teliya-kanda, its medicinal applications, features, drug formulations, drug administration route, dosage etc. The survey was conglomerated with ancient texts of Ayurveda (published/ unpublished), thereby possibly revealing the most accurate botanical source of Teliya-kanda. The ethnobotanical information was evaluated by various quantitative metrics as use value (UV), use frequency (FU), informant consensus factor (FIC), citation relative frequency (RFC), popularity relative level (RPL), and rank priority (RP). In the present study, data collected from the survey participants included the information of about 09 taxa belonging to 05 botanical families. The interviewed informants alluded that the highest level of fidelity, popularity, and priority was found for Sauromatum venosum (Dryand. ex Aiton) Kunth (RPL ~ 0.417; RFC ~ 0.232; RP ~ 0.0969), thereby indicating it to be the most probable botanical source of Teliya-kanda. Based on this ethnobotanical survey, the name Teliya-kanda can be associated with S. venosum (Dryand. ex Aiton) Kunth, however, further detailed molecular and phytochemical analyses yet need to be unveiled.