Traditional medicinal knowledge about common herbs and insects : Interactions with the natives of village Khudmudi, Chhattisgarh, India

Research Note - Pankaj Oudhia
© 2001,2002,2003 Pankaj Oudhia - All Rights Reserved

I am fortunate, that I belong to the village, with natives having rich traditional medicinal knowledge about herbs and insects. The village Khudmudi is situated 23 kms. from the capital city of Chhattisgarh, Raipur. In appearance it is simple village, population nearly 1000 and main crops are paddy, chickpea, linseed and lathyrus. At my grandfather’s time (40-50 years back) Khudmudi was surrounded by the forest. At present there is no forest in Khudmudi. At that time my grandfather use horse and bullock cart for travel. About 2kms. From village, he met the tiger once when he was travelling in bullock cart, the tiger ate one bull, but luckily he made no harms to grandfather. According to the natives of my village, my grandfather was an expert of herbs. He was famous for the treatment of some specific problems like scorpion bite. Mr. Dhuru pahatia working under him is still with us. The has informed me the about my grandfather’s knowledge and experience.

Botanical differences between major species of Sida
Characteristics	Sida	Sida
	acuta	cordifolia
1) Habit	A shrub with slender branches, minutely hairy.	An annual or perennial herb or under shrub, softly hair all over.
2) Leaf	2.5-6.3 cm long, lanceolate, base rounded, sharply serrate, glabrous	2.5-5.0 cm long, cordate, ovate-oblong, crenate, obtuse
3) Flower	1-2 in each axil, pedical jointed about the middle	Solitary or few togather, pedical jointed much above the middle, yellow.
4) Fruit	5-6 mm diameter, carpels 5-9, strongely reticulated, puberulous, dorsal margins toothed, awn two, linear.	6-8 mm diameter, carpels 7-10, strongly reticulated, upper margins ciliate, dorsal scabrid, awns two, linear, scabrid-hairy.

My father is geologist and never told me about the rich knowledge of grandfather. In Khudmudi use of many herbs and insects are common to the natives and I am proud to say that they are still using this knowledge for the cure of common ailments. Unlike to other villages where the traditional knowledge is limited to the Traditional Healers, in Khudmudi this knowledge is open for everyone. But like other villages, young generation is showing less interest in understanding the science behind this knowledge. The old generation is in dilemma. As the old villagers are passing away, the valuable knowledge is also going with them. The purpose is to document the traditional medicinal knowledge about herbs and insects present with natives of village Khudmudi.

Locally Termite is known as Deyar (In Hindi, Deemak). Termite mounds are common in Khudmudi. The termite queen is of great value for the natives. In order to increase the strength of newly married man, it is tradition to gift him, freshly collected termite queen. This queen is cooked deliciously and served at dinner. It is general belief that eating this dish once in a year can give enough strength as the population is increasing, it is becoming difficult to get fresh queen during peak marriage season. Mr. Dhuruv informed me in past the forests are rich in termite mounds and queens were in abundance. At that time, it was a dish available for every one. Even the natives of other villages frequently visit to village forest for the collection of queen. According to Mr. Dhuruv the queen is hot in Tasir (nature) and one dose can prevent the patients up to one year against common cold. Mr. Dhuruv blaims the use of lethal insecticides for deteriorating quality of this medicinal insect. He informed me that last year when one man used the dish, the loose motions have started. Actually he has collected the queen from paddy fields where fumigant phorate was regularly used to manage stem borers. Termite is a problematic pest for agricultural crops. It is a recommendation to kill queen in order to control it completely. The traditional use of queen as food and as medicine was beneficial to regulate the population of harmful termites. According to the old natives of Khudmudi, at that time there was no problem of termite. Now, it has became a headache for the farmers. In urban areas of Chhattisgarh, termites are creating problems in home. The urban people, use many insecticides for the control of termite. 

The wise people call the rural workers from nearby villages and instruct them to destroy the termite mound, the root cause of this problem. You will be surprised to know that the rural workers take no charge for elicious queen. I personally feel, that there is a strong need to popularise this unique use of termite queen among urban people so that the termite population can be managed naturally. During my survey of Gandai forest, one traditional healer informed me to use the termite queen in form of dried powder in order to mask its identity. Mr. Dhuruv has insisted me several times to experience the strength of termite queen but as I am still a bachelor, hesitating to use this aphrodisiac. But Mr. Dhuruv has promised me to provide the healthy queen whenever I will decide to marry.

Saccharum spontaneum, a wild relative of Sugarcane, is a common rainy season weed in almost every part of Chhattisgarh. In Khudmudi, for paddy growers it is a troublesum weed. Locally it is known as Kasi or Kansi. For old natives, this weed is a boon for them. They collect the roots of this weed and use to prepare oil joint pain common in old age . With the help of fresh roots, dried ginger and sesamum oil, a special oil is prepared and used externally. According to the natives, roots collected after flowering is more useful as compared to roots collected prior to flowering. If you have ever seen this weed, you can understand the labour required to dig out the roots. According to the Traditional Healers of Bastar, as deeper we go for collection of roots, we get more potential. According to them, this oil is used for all people of all age group and in every rainy season every one must use it in order get rid of joint pains and other related ailments. For paddy farmers, who spend many hours in submerged fields, this oil helps in treatment of skin abnormalities occur in fingers of the legs. In past, it was a common practice to use this oil. Again this use indicates the utilisation of weed roots in order to regulate the natural harming population in paddy fields. But as the use of new drugs and balms is increasing, this traditional oil is loosing its popularity. Simultaneously, the problem of Saccharum infestation is also increasing. of Saccharum which are polluting the soil, water and food of the village.

In different scientific forums particular among the weeds scientists I always try to convince them about the importance of traditional knowledge about common weeds and traditional ways to manage them, but always they prefer the chemical option, possibly due to influence of multinationals, that are becoming future super weeds for my country.

Like other villages of Chhattisgarh, the natives of Khudmudi have rich traditional knowledge about herbs use as potherb (or fresh vegetable). Charota, Barra, Bambi, Macharia, Muscani, Kolhi-Kekdi, Kaua-Kaini, Bathua, Karmatta, Tinpania etc. common weeds in village used as potherbs.These potherbs are used as both food and medicine. As the cattle particularly the milch cattle are a part of Indian village life. The natives of Khudmudi village also keep cattle for milk and farm operations. Wherever the dung is present, the dung beetles must be there. In Khudmudi, like dung beetles of other places in earth dung beetles perform their routine work to dispose off the dung. For natives of Khudmudi, dung beetles are source of medicine. They use it externally in case of bleeding from fresh wounds and cuts. Like styptic herbs, dung beetles are also effective in order to stop bleeding and to heal the wound. According to the natives, they never use the dung beetle feeding on human excreta for this purpose. The dung beetles living in their cattle shed are preferred . The styptic properties of cow urine and dung are well documented in literatures. But the use of dung beetles as styptic has yet not been reported in available literatures. It is also common practice to urinate on fresh cuts and wounds in order to treat them. This use of human urine is also reported in literatures. As in appearance dung beetles are not good looking , this the reason the use is not popular in natives. The care taker community of cattle, frequently use this treatment during their routine daily work.

Sida acuta, locally known as Bariya dmudi, it is a common rainy season wasteland weed. In Khudmudi, native use this weed with the excreta of mouse to suppurate the small boils. This paste prepared by grinding and mixing the leaves in water and with the fresh excreta of mouse and applied externally on boils. Within day or two the boils suppurate and after discharge of pus, it become cured. This traditional use has also yet not been documented in the literatures. During rainy season a specific virus attack on the fresh leaves and very soon mosaic like symptoms appear. The natives not prefer virus infested leaves for this purpose.

As you know, red velvet mite Trombidium locally known as Rani Keeda, is common rain mite in Chhattisgarh and natives are having rich traditional medicinal knowledge about this mite. In Khudmudi, the native prepare a oil using fresh Trombidium This oil is used for massage of patient suffering from lakwa (paralysis). According to the natives, the nature of oil is hot and it is having a miracle effect. In ancient Indian literatures on herbal medicine, the description of oil and its medicinal properties have been reported. I am proud to say the natives of Khudmudi are still using this oil for this problem.

The collection of honey, from nearby areas is a routine practice in many villages of Chhattisgarh. The old natives of Chhattisgarh use the honey bee along with honey as medicine. Again like termite queen it is used as aphrodisiac. But in this case it is used externally. These natives collect the fresh honey bee and prepare a special oil by dipping it in sesamum oil and use it externally as aphrodisiac. The use of honey bee for this purpose has not been reported.

In Chhattisgarh, there are over 15,000 villages. I am trying to visit each and every village for documentation of traditional medicinal knowledge about common herbs and insects. This is really an exhaustive job. But these surveys and studies are helping me to understand the miracle healing properties of mother nature’s gift to mankind.