Abstract
BackgroundSkin diseases are a major health concern especially in association with human immune deficiency syndrome and acquired an immune deficiency. The aim of this study was to document the ethnomedicinal information of plants used to treat skin diseases in Northern Pakistan. This is the first quantitative ethnobotanical study of therapeutic herbs utilized by the indigenous people of Northern Pakistan for skin diseases.MethodsInterviews were taken to obtain information from 180 participants. Quantitative methods including fidelity level (FL), Frequency of citation (FC), Use-value (UV), Jaccard indices (JI), Family importance value (FIV), Relative frequency of citation (RFC) and Chi-square test were applied. Medicinal plants uses are also compared with 50 national and international publications.ResultsIn this study, we recorded 106 plant species belonged to 56 floral families for treatment of skin ailments. The dominant life form reported was herb while the preferred method of utilization was powder, along with leaf as the most used plant part. RFC ranges from 0.07 to 0.25% whereas the highest FIV was recorded for family Pteridaceae. FL values range from 36.8 to 100%. The study reported 88% of new plant reports for the treatment of skin diseases.ConclusionThe present study revealed the importance of several plants used to treat skin diseases by the local communities of Northern Pakistan. The available literature supported the evidence of plant dermatological properties. Plants having high UV and RFC can be considered for further scientific analysis. There is dire need to create awareness among local, government and scientific communities for the preservation of medicinal species and ethnomedicinal knowledge in Northern Pakistan.
Highlights
Skin diseases are a major health concern especially in association with human immune deficiency syndrome and acquired an immune deficiency
Socio-demographic characteristics of participants Collectively 180 participants were selected from several regions of Northern Pakistan
Euphorbia helioscopia was reported for the treatment of cholera, jaundice, respiratory diseases, cancer [46], but the present study reported it for wound healing
Summary
Skin diseases are a major health concern especially in association with human immune deficiency syndrome and acquired an immune deficiency. The aim of this study was to document the ethnomedicinal information of plants used to treat skin diseases in Northern Pakistan. This is the first quantitative ethnobotanical study of therapeutic herbs utilized by the indigenous people of Northern Pakistan for skin diseases. Skin diseases present a major health concern worldwide [1]. It was found that wound healing, eczema, dermatitis, fungal diseases, pyoderma, scabies, and skin allergies are the largest group of skin diseases that occur in most of the countries. Various plants have been reported to be used against skin infections like wound healing, scabies, swellings, boils, etc. Various plants have been reported to be used against skin infections like wound healing, scabies, swellings, boils, etc. [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
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