EBM 10 | Volume1|Issue2|2014 1 ETHNOMEDICINAL PLANTS USED FOR ANTHELMINTIC/ HELMINTHIASIS IN VISAKHAPATNAM DISTRICT, ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA S. B. Padal 1,* , K. Satyavathi, D. Sandhyadeepika Botany Department. Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India Correspondence should be addressed to S. B. Padal Received 20 November 2014; Accepted 10 December 2014; Published 30 December 2014 Copyright: © 2014 S. B. Padal et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACTS Plant species used in the treatment of Anthelmintic / Helminthiasis diseases among the indigenous communities of Visakhapatnam District was conducted between 2013 -2014. Thirty two plant species belonging to 21 families were found to be used specifically in the treatment of Anthelmintic / Helminthiasis diseases. KEYWORDS: Folklore Treatment, Anthelmintic/Helminthiasis, Tribal People, Visakhapatnam District INTRODUCTION India is considered as one of the 12 mega- biodiversity countries of the world having rich vegetation of about 45,000 vascular plants, with concentrated hotspots in the regions of Eastern Himalayas, Western Ghats and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Of these, the folk medicine system of India use about 5,000 plant species with about 25,000 formulations for treating a variety of ailments, whereas the tribal medicine involves the use of over 8,000 wild plants with about 1,75,000 specific preparations/applications. The classical indigenous systems of Indian medicine prescribe 10,000 designated formulations. Ethnobotany deals with the direct relationship of plants with man. Early origins of traditional medicine must have had their roots in ethnobotanical folklore, but today, traditional medicine incorporates several well- organized, distinct systems of diagnosis and cure. In India alone, three traditional systems of medicine, namely Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani are distinguished. The use of plants in ‘Ayurveda’ (2500-900 B.C.) the foundation of medicinal science in human culture has been observed as dealing with plants possessing special properties of drugs in various aspects of healing (Bhandari 1984-86). Further, ethnobotany includes study of foods, fibers, dyes, and tannin, other useful and harmful plants, taboos, avoidances and even magico-religious beliefs about plants (Jain 1967 a; Ford, 1978). Ethnomedicinal studies for endemic diseaseas by the tribe of Munchengiputtu Mandalam, Visakhapatnam District (Padal, Ramakrishna & Devender 2012). Ethnomedicinal Investigation of Medicinal Plants Used By the Tribes of Pedabayalu Mandalam, Visakhapatnam District (Padal, Chandrasekhar & Satyavathi 2013). STUDY AREA Visakhapatnam district is one of the North Eastern Coastal district of Andhra Pradesh and it lies between 17 o – 15 1 and 18 o - 32 1 Northern latitude and 18 o - 54 1 and 83 o - 30 1 in Eastern longitudes. It is bounded on the North partly by the Orissa State and partly by Vizianagaram District, on the South by East Godavari District, on the West by Orissa State and on the East by Bay of Bengal. www.advancejournals.org Open Access Scientific Publisher