SOME TRADITIONAL HEALTH CARE PRACTICES OF JAUNDICE IN PARTS OF WESTERN ASSAM (NORTH EAST

摘要

The very old traditional Indian herbal medicinal heritage flow in two streams –one is codified classical stream and the other one is the non-codified or the oral folk .The codified system is more institutionalized and is basically of four types - Ayurveda, Sidha, Unani and Gsorigpa.It is interesting that the non- codified systems are more popularly known as Local Health Tradition (LHT) though it is informal it exists among various ethnic and traditional communities of India more particularly in North East India of which the study area i. e. Western Assam being a part is found to be rich in such traditional herbal system of health care practices. Western Assam is located at the extreme western part of Assam it extends from 89049/20//E longitude to 91048/16//longitude and 25027/ N latitude to 26054//latitude covering lower Brahmaputra valley. For primary data collection the fields were visited frequently meeting the local people specially these people who are well experienced with the knowledge of local health practices through interview during 2012- 2013. During data collection it was found that there are many knowledgeable persons in the field of herbal health care practices who often practice their medicinal systems to cure various types of diseases like piles, fever ,stomach disorder, eye problem, bone problem including some minor bodily disorders .But in this paper importance is given to one of the very dangerous more common disease that is Jaundice which is caused by an excess of a waste product bilirubin in blood after the removal of iron from hemoglobin ;this excess bilirubin may leak out into surrounding tissues saturating them with this yellow substance. Here 5 main herbal recipes are analyzed and presented in a very lucid scientific way. Thus the herbal preparations presented here practiced by various knowledgeable persons in herbal medicines (known as Ojha, Kobiraj, Bej, Healers etc.) which are often found very active preparations against Jaundice. People from various parts come to these persons and found utilized in curing this very dangerous disease. Traditionally they are practicing their knowledge generation by generation as means of their livelihood besides serving mass people at the time of distress.