Ethnobotanical, phytochemical, and pharmacological review of four medicinal plants used by various tribal communities in Bangladesh

Abstract

through the centuries, rely heavily on traditional medical knowledge for basic healthcare. Four commonly used medicinal plants - Allium sativum, Colocasia esculenta, Datura metel, and Moringa oleifera are examined in this review along with their phytochemical profiles and pharmacological characteristics.

Methods: About 180 published articles on indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants in the different regions, with a focus on scheduled tribe populations from electronic databases like Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, and Science Direct were used to gather secondary data. After manual removal of duplicates, screening done by reading abstract, full texts and data were collected.  From the review and visual findings, all the tables were generated manually. For each plant, plant species, geographic region, tribal community, used part, ethnomedicinal properties, phytochemical constituents and pharmacological activities recorded.

Results: The literatures revealed that the selected plants contain diverse bioactive constituents, including organosulfur compounds, phenol, flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, and glycosides, which are associated with antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, and neuropharmacological effects. Tribal communities use these plants to treat various diseases, and ritualistic ailments. The results showed the major classes of phytochemicals in our selected four medicinal plants from Bangladesh and their pharmacological roles, with emphasis on their applications in traditional and modern medicine.

Conclusions: The findings underscore the deep interconnection between biodiversity and indigenous cultural practices, of medicinal plants specially in Bangladesh and highlight the importance of documenting traditional knowledge for future drug discovery initiatives and sustainable healthcare strategies. Preservation, scientific validation, and responsible utilization of ethnomedicinal resources are essential to support both community health and modern pharmacological research.

Keywords: Allium sativum, Colocasia esculenta, Datura metel, Ethnobotany, Moringa oleifera, Bangladesh