Traditional uses of Ethno-medicinal Plants in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs), Bangladesh: A Review

Abstract

Objective: Traditional medicines are of great importance to villagers and also now a day to modern drugs. Scientists are trying to explore new drug resources along with the modern drugs to support drug treatment strategy to be more effective and merely natural. Nature is the rich source of many essential bioactive compounds with more specificity and less side effects and thus, traditional medicines are got attention to the pharmacists. There are lots of medicinal plants with scientific evidences in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) region, but all that information have not yet been compiled as a review. Keeping this in mind, a review attempt has been taken by focusing on traditional medicine used mostly by the indigenous population of Chittagong Hill Tracts region, which is also a rich source of biodiversity of Bangladesh. Methods: Research articles based on various traditional medicines focusing CHTs region were taken in consideration to compile the data sources in this review article. Results and Conclusion: Peoples in CHTs are using various types of medicinal plants obtained from their surroundings and have been using from long since with traditional reputation. In this review, we focused on such medicinal plants along with their scientific evidences, which would attract lots of scientists to work more to unveil a new research avenue in drug development.