Herbal Medicine: Open Access

Exploring of traditional snake bite treatments in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has great snake diversity and over 40,000, cases reported annually from different agro ecological regions of the country.  Since more than 95% of victims are relied on traditional snakebite treatments, there is an urgent necessity of development of traditional snakebite treatment system in Sri Lanka. However, the traditional knowledge on snakebite treatments has been passed generation to generation within their families. Therefore, development of snakebite treatment system in Sri Lanka is hindered by unavailability of required information on types of medicinal plant materials used and other pertinent issues on snakebite treatments. Thus, in the present study we investigated types of medicinal plant materials required, parts of the plants used for the treatment for different snake bites, treatment types, frequency index, heavily used and rare materials, family wise distribution, challenges faced by traditional practitioners and future prospects. Information was gathered from a total of seventy four (74) traditional practitioners from Sabaragamuwa and Western provinces. Data were gathered by face-to-face interviews with traditional practitioners.  Collected data were tabulated and analyzed.  A total of 341 different plant species belonging to 99 families were documented. The highest number of plants were reported from family Fabaceae (32 species). utilized for isolation and characterization of antivenom for different snake species.

Author(s): RM Dharmadasa

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