Ethnopharmacological survey of Layyah District Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Ethnobotanical survey was conducted district Layyah, during 2010. The survey was conducted along with Chowk Azam road in some of villages including chaks i.e chak no 145.A/T.D.A,146.A/T.D.A,151/T.D.A,128/T.D.A and chak no 120/T.D.A tehsil and district Layyah. From each village 20 People were selected randomly by lottery method for consultation. For more ethnobotanic information some traditional healers were interviewed. Present study focused on local inhabitants who use traditional resources for self-medication with particular reference to ethnopharmacological application of plant species for diseases and natural cosmetics. The study was carried out by interviewing respondents in remote sites (lack of health facilities, poverty and extensive use of medicinal plants). In total 100 informants were interviewed on their management of diseases. The respondents were old age women (10%), men (60%) and traditional healers (30%) themselves and had knowledge on the medicinal uses of the plants for the said purpose. To collect data systematically on disease management questionnaires and discussions were applied. A total of 100 plants have been reported to use traditionally to cure different ailments in district Layyah, Punjab during survey. About 13 plant species were reported for their use to cure pains in different body ailments. Among these Eugenia aromatica, Terminalia chebula, Mentha microphylla, Accassia Arabica, Eucalyptus camaldulences, Foeniculum vulgare, Coriandrum sativum, Coriandrum sativum, Accasia nilotica, Brassica compestris, Aloe vera, Allium sativum and Zingiber officinale constituted the major medications. About 3 plantspecies had been revealed as cure in fever. Melia azedarach Ocimum sanctum, Peucedanum graveolens. Miscellaneous uses of plants consisted of for treatment of wounds, flue and catarrh, hypertension, piles, general debility, cough, fever, Diabetes, Haemorrhoid problems and Spermatorrhoea like problems etc. Some of the reported species are wild and rare, this demands an urgent attention to conserve such vital resources so as to optimize their use in the primary health care system. Layyah District is located in Punjab province of Pakistan. The Indus River flows to its Western side. Layyah has an area of 6291 square kilometres and comprises three tehsils:Layyah,Chaubara and Karor. The medium of education is Urdu and English. The district had a population of 1,520,951 of which only 20.47% are urban and remaining in rural areas. The District Layyah has an extremely hot climate. Maximum temperature in the summer goes up to 53 degree Celsius. The temperature in winter is low due to nearness to Koh-Suleman range of mountains. The people living in rural areas are not well educated and belong to low income groups. They can not afford expensive medical prescriptions. So they totally rely on the traditional medicines which are mostly botanical origin. The tribal people have a strong faith and belief in the traditional health care system, through herbal treatment. Plant species are generally used along with other materials and plant products in different combinations to effective cure. (Shoukat Bhatti 2005). About three-quarters population of the world depend upon traditional remedies for the basic health care of its people. In fact, herbs or plants always remain the friends of mankind. They provided food, shelter and served the humanity to cure different ailments. Folklore information from many different cultures is an important tool in revealing plants with useful medicinal properties (Balandrin et al., 1993). The soil and climatic conditions of Pakistan are fortunately extremely diverse having all the four seasons in the country and a variety of topography. This makes Pakistan rich not only in botanical diversity but also in inherited traditional knowledge and animal husbandry system. People use plants to cure themselves and their animals from times immemorial (Muhammad et al., 2005). During the second half of this century, socio-political changes have contributed to an irreversible loss of traditional medical knowledge throughout this and other regions of Peru´. Furthermore, political violence during the 1980's discouraged field researchers, thus hampering scientific data