Author(s): Devanjal Bora, Selim Mehmud, Kangkan Kr. Das, BK Bharali, Dimbeshwar Das, Bijoy Neog, Romesh Hatimuria, Luhit Raidongia

Abstract: Aroids or the members of Araceae Family are distributed worldwide with 117 genera and 3790 species. In India including North east India though various floristic works has been carried out very few records of ethnobotanical works can be found which are scattered in various journals and periodicals, making the data mostly not easily accessible to researchers. Cross cultural ethno-botany is essential not only in authenticating and assessing the values of plant lore’s but also in credibility testing of folklore claims and also finding out the new and less known use of plants. Ethno-Pharmacology has become a scientific backbone in the development of active therapeutics based upon traditional medicine of various ethnic groups. The present communication is a review based on the reported folklore medicinal claims involving members of the Aroid family used by different tribes in Assam for various disease conditions. The present study has brought into light 82 prescriptions of plant folk medicines covering more than 60 disease conditions represented by 14 aroid species and 10 genera. Among the total plant species enumerated in this communication, positive correlation between folklore use and biological activities has been recorded in preliminary review for only 4 plant species. Here an attempt has been made to test the credibility of the folklore claims by cross cultural studies among different tribes and to corroborate the claims with reported biological activities of the species in due course for scientific validation.