A Survey on the Ethnomedicinal Plants and Antimicrobial Activity Of Tridax Procumbens L.

Medicinal plants play a significant part in our society. Several types of plants are having great potential to cure many diseases which are referred to as medicinal plants. Medicinal plants are present mostly in forests which are traditional, accessible and affordable sources of primary health care for mainly tribal peoples. Odisha is blessed with a rich source of medicinal plants and has a great diversity. Although only some numbers of medicinal plants are identified today now, many species of medicinal plants are still unknown to society. The current work is studied to enlighten the medicinal plants among the tribes of the Kundra block of Koraput district of Odisha. During the study, 26 plant species belong to 17 families were documented. Out of that Tridax procumbens L. is widely used to cure various diseases and showed good antimicrobial activity. The petroleum ether and aqueous extracts showed the growth of inhibition on both the tested bacteria Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. It can be concluded that the ethnomedicinal plants can be used to find out a new natural product which may lead to the development of a new drug.