Lehya formulations for mother and child care in Havyak community of Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, India

The period between pregnancy and the child birth is a critical phase in the lives of mothers and newborn babies. In most of the Asian countries including India, the use of medicinal plants, cultural traditions and the diets practiced by the ethnic groups have their age old histories. Present study was carried out to compile the traditional knowledge of the age old practitioners on pre and postnatal remedies. The survey was carried out in the areas of Sirsi, Siddapur and Mundgod taluks of Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka state, India. Medicinal plants were collected and quantitative data analyses like Use Value (UV), Relative frequency citation (Rfc) and Family Importance Value (FIV) have been provided to analyze the importance of reported plants. The study revealed the use of 28 plant species belonging to 19 families. The home remedies for pregnant women are in the form of paste, called 'Lehya' in local language. Habit-wise analysis of the plants indicate that herbs are highly used (35.71%) and in most of the case fruits (32.14%) and seeds (25%) are frequently used plant parts in 'Lehya' preparation. The most important plant species according to the quantitative data analysis are Cassia sophera, Centella asiatica, Cocos nucifera, Cucumis melo var. acidulus, Curcuma longa, Phoenix dactylifera and Syzygium aromaticum.