 However, interest in using phytochemicals (products from secondary plant metabolism) for the treatment of microbial infections has increased from the late 1990s following the poor efficacy of conventional antibiotics, due in part to their often excessive and inappropriate use in mammalian infections.The Chungtia villagers have developed a wealth of knowledge on medicinal flora over many generations.An ethnobotanical study documented 37 medicinal plants used by Chungtia villagers for the treatment of skin related ailments consistent with a microbial aetiology.