Background: The Santals have innate expertise in managing their livestock’s health and it is still actively practiced the districts of rural West Bengal, India. Perusal literature indicates that no research work exclusively on ethnoveterinary medicine has been carried out till date from Purba Paschim Bardhaman Bengal. In this regard, indigenous therapeutic knowledge (ITK) for livestock care bei...

From cell suspension cultures of Ochrosia elliptica Labill. eight different monoterpenoid indole alkaloids were isolated and comprised three alkaloid classes viz. Corynanthe/Heteroyohimbine (tetrahydroalstonine, cathenamine, pleiocarpamine and two methoxylated heteroyohimbines), Strychnos (norfluorocurarine), Apparicine (apparicine and epchrosine). All these compounds except the Strychnos alkal...

Strychnos wallichiana (Loganiaceae) is a critically endangered medicinal plant, commonly used in several native medical practices. The majority of members of the Strychnos genus shares a similar chemical composition and contains common indole alkaloids. Purification of strychnine and brucine from a few species of Strychnos have already been reported; however, we have purified and quantified the...

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Every year between 1.2 and 5.5 million people worldwide are victims of snakebites, with about 400,000 left permanently injured. In Central America an estimated 5500 snakebite cases are reported by health centres, but this is likely to be an underestimate due to unreported cases in rural regions. The aim of this study is to review the medicinal plants used traditio...