Floral diversity of medicinal plant usage against some prevalent diseases among the communities of Northern Pakistan.

Abstract

This is the first report study on ethnobotanical documentation in Northern Pakistan about the usage of medicinal plants for treatment of prevalent diseases including musculoskeletal disorders, hypertension, skin diseases and glottis disorders. The main aim was to document the indigenous knowledge of the local people about the utilization of medicinal flora. In total of 630 informants were interviewed in order to document comprehensive ethnomedicinal information. Quantitative ethnobotanical indices, i.e., use value (UV), relative frequency of citation (RFC), family Importance value (FIV), fidelity level (FL) and Jaccard index (JI) were calculated for the reported medicinal plants. A total of 498 medicinal plants, 450 genera, belonging to 85 families were documented. For Musculoskeletal disorders, 131 species belonging to 71 families were reported with their traditional medicinal uses. The most dominant life form was herb (69%), decoction was preferred method of utilization (43 species) and leaves were the most used plant part (57 species). The most used family was Asteraceae (11 species). Highest used category was recorded for rheumatism (63 species) and the most used species were Bistorta affinis(D. Don) Green, Colebrookea oppositifolia Sm. and Colchicum luteum Baker. RFC ranged from 0.098 to 0.586, Urtica dioica L. with highest DCI (0.68) and Fabaceae was dominant family in terms of FIV (86.8%). In this study documented data was compared with 25 previous national and international published articles in order to find out some novel plant species in terms of new ethnomedicinal uses. For Hypertension, total of 164 plant species, belonging to 69 were reported. Asteraceae (23 plant species) was dominant family. The most dominant life form reported was herb (58%), preferred method of utilization was decoction (57 species) and the most used plant part was leaves (89 species). Highest FIV was recorded for Lamiaceae (327). The quantitative analysis showed RFC ranged from 0.08-1.08 and DCI from 0.233-0.000. The highest Fidelity level of plants recorded for Bauhinia variegata L. (FL=86.11). In addition to this the documented data was compared with 31 previous national and international published papers in order to obtain some novel ethnomedicinal uses. For skin diseases 106 plant species belonging to 56 families were documented. Asteraceae (14 species) was dominant family. The most dominant life form reported was herb (62%), the preferred method of utilization powder (23 species), and the most used plant part was leaves (63 species). Wound healing (43 species) is dominant disease category. The quantitative analysis showed RFC ranged from 0.07 to 0.25%. Highest use-value was reported for Psidium guajava L. (0.143 UV). Highest FIV was recorded for Pteridaceae (26.6%). In this study FL values ranged from 36.8 to 100% and the use for skin disorders was reported for the first time for 88% of the plant species. The reported data was also compared with 50 previous national and international published papers in order to obtain some novel ethnomedicinal uses. For glottis disorders 97 medicinal plant species belonging to 51 families were reported. Lamiaceae (10 species) was found as most cited family with highest FIV (62.1%). Leaves were the most frequently used plant parts (44%) followed by fruits (11%). Frequently used growth forms of medicinal plants was herb (65%) followed by trees (19%). The herbal preparations were mostly in the form of unprocessed dried/fresh, decoction (52%) and powder (12%) and were usually taken orally. Cough (73 species) was most treated diseases category. RFC value ranges from 0.268 - 0.049. Euphorbia hirta L. and Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton (0.22) showed the highest use vale while least UV was reported for Malva sylvestris L., and Mentha longifolia (L.) Huds. (0.01). Lamiaceae was the most dominant family (62.163 %). Similarly Tagetes erecta L., Aloe vera Linn., Adiantum capillus-veneris L., and Anisomeles indica L. were identified as plants with high fidelity level (FL = 94.4%). In addition to this the data was compared with 33 national and international published articles. The study provides comprehensive and useful information about traditional uses of medicinal plants used by local communities for the treatment of Musculoskeletal, Hypertension, Skin and Glottis disorders in Northern Pakistan. This project gives baseline data on indigenous knowledge in Northern Pakistan to promote local health conditions, save it for upcoming generations as well as for potential drug discovery development. In future this reported ethnopharmacological data should be used as interdisciplinary field of research in providing primary data and scientific nexus with advance research project regarding pharmacological applications as well as in advanced field of pharmaceuticals and new drug discovery development.