Abstract
Introduction
From the viewpoint of linguistic differences, the Khasias are divided into four groups, namely, Khenriam, War, Bhoi, and Lingam. The various groups are spread out in the four districts of Sylhet Division, including the districts of Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, and Sunamganj. Marriages can occur between the various linguistic groups. The present study was conducted among the War dialect speaking Khasia community of Sylhet district.
It was observed that the Khasias live in villages called punjis. Ten (10) to 100 families may live in a punji, referred to by the mainstream Bengali-speaking population as Khasia punji or Khasia village. These villages may be near or adjacent to villages of the mainstream population but are separate. Unless otherwise required, the Khasias try to maintain their own identity. A group within every punji conducts day-to-day village affairs. This group is known as Durbar Shnong. Every family has a member within this group. The chief of this collective body is known as Montri or Headman. The position of Montri is hereditary.
It was further observed during the course of this survey that around 70% of the Khasias earn their living through cultivation of betel leaves (Piper betle L. [Piperaceae]), which they do in forests or Government-owned lands. Betel leaves are chewed widely by the people of Bangladesh; it is supposed to act as a mild stimulant and as a digestive aid. However, the overall economic conditions of the Khasias are very poor, which compels 10%–15% of the Khasia communities to work as agricultural laborers on other people's lands. Moreover, since the Government is converting forests and hilly regions where the Khasias live into ecoparks, their traditional ways of earning and living are at risk. Other people are converging on Khasia-owned lands, causing resentment among the Khasias. Although it used to be a vibrant community with good economic status, the Khasia community is becoming reclusive and very resentful of the mainstream population.
The older generations of the Khasias were observed to be confused in losing their traditional ways of living. According to them, the Khasias used to have a strong traditional medicinal system and possessed good knowledge of the floral species of the forests and hills; these floral species are almost unique to the Sylhet Division. This knowledge is on the verge of disappearance. The traditional medicinal practitioners are now old, and unlike the past, the younger generation is no longer interested in picking up these medicinal practices. Incantations and magic, which used to be a distinctive feature of their traditional medicinal system, have all but disappeared. It is therefore important to document their tribal medicinal practices before they are lost.
Bangladesh, in recent ethnographic reports, is said to have more than a hundred tribes or indigenous communities. Apart from possibly half a dozen major tribes, the rest are on the verge of disappearance through either decrease in population or being assimilated within the mainstream population. Since it was felt that many ancient knowledge and practices would be lost once these tribes disappear, the authors had been conducting ethnomedicinal surveys among various tribes for the last 4 years, concentrating on traditional medicinal practices. Various indigenous communities have through centuries of possible trial and error developed their medicinal practices, traditionally utilizing medicinal plants, with a deep knowledge of the local flora around their habitat. Modern medicine has much to gain from documenting this knowledge, for many modern drugs such as aspirin, atropine, ephedrine, digoxin, morphine, quinine, reserpine, and tubocurarine are a result of the observations of medicinal practices of indigenous people. 2,3 The authors have previously documented the indigenous medicinal practices of the Chakma, Santal, Bede, Tripura, Hodi, and the Sardar communities. 4 –9 The objective of the present survey was to document the traditional medicinal practices of the Khasia tribal medicinal practitioners of the Khasia communities living within Sylhet district of Bangladesh.
The present study was conducted during the latter part of 2010 and nearly all of 2011. Khasia tribal communities were located in Kanairghat, Gowainghat, and Jaintiapur subdistricts of Sylhet district. Six (6) tribal practitioners were interviewed altogether. They were Bimol Roy, Moi Dikhar, and Kabita Dikhar in Kanairghat subdistrict, Soudamini Dikhar in Gowainghat subdistrict, and Sukriti Dikhar and Parvin Begum in Jaintiapur subdistrict. The latter was a Khasia tribal woman converted to the Muslim religion. Bimol Roy was the Montri of the Khasia community in the Khasia punji at Kanairghat subdistrict. Informed consent was initially obtained from all practitioners to use their names and to disseminate any provided information both nationally and internationally. The nature of the authors' visit was clearly explained to both practitioners and the community people. In general, the Khasia practitioners initially declined to provide any information, and there was a general sense of distrust among them about the authors. However, Parvin Begum, who also spoke Bengali fluently and was a practitioner herself, succeeded in getting the other tribal practitioners to talk. The other practitioners were also conversant in Bengali, and interviews were conducted in Bengali with the help of Parvin Begum. Bimol Roy, Montri, or Headman of the Khasia community in Kanairghat subdistrict and a practitioner himself, also played a leading part in allaying the initial suspicions of the other practitioners. Once the initial suspicions were allayed, the Khasia healers talked quite freely about their use of medicinal plants and gave quite extensive amounts of time and effort to help the interviewers in collecting the plants.
Interviews were conducted with the help of a semistructured questionnaire and the guided field-walk method of Martin 10 and Maundu. 11 In this method, the practitioners took the interviewers through guided walks (sometimes these walks involved trekking a couple of miles one way) in the hilly forested regions of the Khasia punjis from which they collected their medicinal plants, showed the plants, and described their uses. It is possible that some medicinal plants were not mentioned by the healers because of their rarity and the considerable trouble it would involve in locating such plants. Plant specimens were photographed, collected and dried and brought back to Dhaka for identification by Mr. Manjur-Ul-Kadir Mia, ex-Curator and Principal Scientific Officer of the Bangladesh National Herbarium. Bangladesh National Herbarium has documented extensively the various plants that are found in Sylhet district, where the present survey was conducted. Mr. Mia identified the medicinal plants obtained in the present survey with the active help of the Bangladesh National Herbarium staff. Voucher specimens were deposited with the Medicinal Plant Collection Wing of the University of Development Alternative.
The Khasia tribal medicinal practitioners reported using 37 medicinal plants distributed into 28 families for treatment of various ailments. The Asteraceae family contributed four plants, while the Euphorbiaceae and the Lauraceae family contributed three plants each. The results are shown in Table 1. A number of the plants such as Semecarpus subpanduriformis, Aglaonema hookerianum, Dischidia bengalensis, Cryptocarya amygdalina, Angiopteris evecta (Fig. 1), Glochidion brunneum (Fig. 3), and Knema bengalensis seem unique as being observed to be not used or rarely used by either tribal or mainstream traditional medicinal practitioners in a number of the authors' previous studies. Among the abovementioned plants, only A. hookerianum is used by mainstream (non-Khasia) traditional medicinal practitioners (Kavirajes) of Sylhet district for treatment of hemorrhoids and arthritis, and so somewhat differs from the Khasia practitioner's use of the plant for treatment of gout (M. Rahmatullah, unpublished observations). Gout appeared to be a common ailment among the Khasias, and the practitioners had three different formulations for treatment of this ailment (see Serial Numbers 2, 5, and 29 in Table 1). The Khasias described gout as pain and swelling in the leg joints, especially the big-toe joint.
Angiopteris evecta.
Euphorbia nivulia.
Glochidion brunneum.
Vernonia cinerea.
Overall, the formulations of the Khasia practitioners were simple. Most often a single plant was used for treatment of one or more diseases, which could be very diverse in nature. For instance, Justicia gendarussa was used for treatment of insect bite as well as wet dreams. D. bengalensis was used for treatment of gastric pain as well as to improve hearing in cases of partial deafness. However, there were two instances of combinations of two plants for treatment. One such instance was the use of Agave americana with Zingiber officinale for treatment of gout, pain, infections and burns. The Khasia practitioners were cognizant of complicated diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiac discomfort. While cardiac discomfort was diagnosed when a patient complained of chest pain accompanied by breathing difficulties and/or abnormal heartbeats, high blood pressure was diagnosed by complaints of constant dizziness by the patient. Diabetes was usually diagnosed when the patient complained of frequent urination and thirst along with the sweet smell and taste of urine.
Two (2) of the formulations of the Khasia practitioners were for diseases of cattle and poultry. Pongamia pinnata (Fig. 4) was used as an appetizer for hens and ducks, the plant serving dual purposes in treatment of poultry having loss of appetite, as well as to increase intake of food in normal birds. Crinum latifolium was used for treatment of indigestion in cattle. Surprisingly, the Khasias did not have any cure for pig ailments, even though pigs were commonly kept in nearly every household. It is also interesting that the Khasia healers did not mention a single plant for treatment of malaria, although malaria is prevalent among the mainstream Bengali-speaking population of Sylhet district. A survey conducted among the Khasi tribe in Meghalaya (which is adjacent to Sylhet district) of India found that only one plant, namely, Clerodendron colebrookianum Walp. (Verbenaceae) was used by their tribal healers to treat malaria. 12 According to the Bangladesh National Herbarium, they do not have this plant sample in their collection. It could not be ascertained why this plant was not mentioned by the Khasia healers. There could be several possibilities. The plant could be rare or not present in Sylhet district where the Khasias reside. Alternately, the Khasias of Sylhet district may have brought the plant from the Khasias of Meghalaya and did not mention it to the interviewers since it was not obtained by them from native sources. A third possibility is that the Khasia healers did not disclose to the interviewers their full range of knowledge of medicinal plants and the diseases treated. There are no existing reports on the extent of malaria prevalence among the Khasias of Sylhet district, and it remains to be determined why such a common disease and any treatment with medicinal plant(s) were not mentioned by the Khasias.
Pongamia pinnata.
The Khasia healers advised inhalation of seed oil from Azadirachta indica (neem oil) to prevent premature graying of hairs. Neem oil is reportedly toxic. 13 However, the oil was advised to be inhaled and not taken orally. Inhalation may reduce the toxicity compared to oral ingestion. It was further advised to drink a glass of milk immediately after inhalation. Whether such partaking of milk reduces or negates any toxicity arising from neem oil inhalation remains to be scientifically determined.
Conclusions
A review of the available scientific literature showed that most of the plants used by the Khasia practitioners are yet to be studied for relevant pharmacologic effects. However, Coccinia grandis (used by the Khasias for treatment of diabetes) had been shown to have a blood-glucose-lowering effect, as well as α-amylase inhibitory activities. 14,15 The other plants of the Khasias merit further studies, not only because they have yet to undergo thorough scientific investigations, but also because they can be potential sources of important medicines for better treatment of difficult diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disorders, and gout. None of these four diseases can be cured with modern allopathic drugs. Since these diseases are reaching almost epidemic proportions throughout the world, it would be greatly beneficial for people to have effective cures against these diseases. Even if only one effective drug is discovered from the formulations of the Khasias, documenting the medicinal practices of the indigenous communities of the world will prove to be of enormous significance. In the authors' laboratory, bioactivity studies have started to be conducted with various tribal medicinal plants. Mainly, the concentration has been on screening of antidiabetic and analgesic properties of medicinal plants, since a more effective drug against diabetes can immensely benefit people throughout the world. Also, two of the most commonly used drugs against pain, namely, aspirin and paracetamol, have side-effects of causing ulceration or hepatotoxicity following prolonged use or overdosage. A better pain-killing drug with fewer or no side-effects can also benefit millions of people who suffer from various types of pain on a daily basis.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
Financial support was provided by Internal funding from the University of Development Alternative.
Disclosure Statement
No financial conflicts exist.