Ethnobotany of a threatened medicinal plant 'Indravan' (Cucumis callosus) from central India

摘要

Indravan, Cucumis callosus (Rottler) Cogn is a native wild medicinally important species. During an exploration trip for collecting cucurbit genetic resources in the tribal tracts of eastern Madhya Pradesh in October 2013, information on the use of this species as a traditional medicinal plant was gathered from Gond and Baiga tribes inhabiting forest areas of Anuppur, Dindori and Shahdol districts. The scientific name (Cucumis callosus) was earlier misapplied to a taxon, occurring under semi-wild condition in crop fields, C. melo L. var. agrestis (Naudin) Pangalo. Hence, the botanical identity of Indravan material as C. callosus was confirmed through field, herbarium and literature studies. The ethno-medicinal use of this species was recorded from old-experienced folk, ojhas and vaidyas, using a semi-structured questionnaire.