Sanaffar - A wonderful ethnomedicine from north western tarai forest of Uttar Pradesh – A new report

Abstract

Du ring th e ethnomedi cinal and taxonomi c su rvey for the flora of the Ki shan pur forest ran ge alon g wi th M.Sc. Botany Students on Nov 24, 2006, the authors were introduced by their guide to a tree plant at the bank of Jhadi Tal locally named as Sanaffar. Kishanpur forest range is about 25km. from Dudwa National Park head quarter. The au thor were told by thei r guide that some time s newl y born baby upto age of 6 month contin uously c ry/weep probabl y due to excessive pai n be cau se of certai n ailme nt. Later the body become bluish. Since the baby can not speak about the ailment, some times it results to the death of the baby. In such case if the bark of Sanaffar is boiled in water and bath of the baby is taken place thrice a day or so with the Sanaffar bark boiled warm water, the baby become cure and stop crying. Our guide Sri Baddal Ram Rana is a Tharu tribe, local resident of a tharu village Muen Nuchani, P.O. Parsia, Distt. Kheri Lakhimpur told that they get their ethnomedicinal knowledge from their elders. They carry the flowering twigs from the forest & show to their different elders and note down the medicinal use if any. His statement was later confirmed by Sri M ihi Lal Dangaura, an e lde rly Jadu Ton a (witche ry) expert of the Dudwa locality. He is R/o Vi llage Bal era. P.O. Dh uskiya, Distt. Kh eri-Lakhi mpur. Sanaffar kn own locally c an n ot be identified botanically because the plant was not in flowering stage at the time.

Keywords

• Sanaffar
• Ethnomedicine