Ethnobotany of medicinal plants in Surghar Range of Pakistan

Abstract

Background: This comprehensive ethnobotanical study was undertaken for the first time to explore and document the medicinal plants used by the indigenous ethnic communities of Surghar Range, Pakistan. The study area is situated adjacent to Salt Range, which lies on the most southern part of Himalayan Ranges in Pakistan. Despite occurrence of so many medicinal plants, culture history and herbal medicines used among the indigenous communities, no explicit ethnobotanical studies are available from this unique region because the field of ethnobotany is still getting mature day by day in Pakistan.

Methods: Semi-structured questionnaires, open interviews and field surveys were used to collect data on medicinal plants and demography from March 2017 to September 2020 from 500 informants by using different quantitative indices viz. relative frequency citation (RFC), use value (UV), informant census factor (ICF), Jaccard Index (JI) and family use value (FUV) to analyze the data.

 Results: A total of 417 plants belonging to 89 families were documented that are ethnobotanically used by ethnic communities. Most herbal remedies were used in the form of decoction (33%). ICF values indicate that cardio-vascular complaints ranked (0.7) followed by ENT diseases (0.6). Species like Berberis lyceum, Forsskaolea tenacissima, Kickxia ramosissima, Momordica balsamina, Monotheca buxifolia, Pseudogaillonia hymenostephana, Rumex vesicarius, Ocimum americanum, Schweinfurthia papilionacea and Viola cinerea would be interesting targets for drug discovery and are suggested for further investigations.

Conclusions: Current study revealed that the study area has sufficient indigenous knowledge on medicinal plants used by the aboriginal people. Their traditional knowledge about medicinal plants must be validated with phytochemical and pharmacological screening to determine bioactive compounds and needs to be preserved.

Keywords: Medicinal plants; Jaccard Index; Surghar Range; Cardio-vascular; Menyanthaceae