Abstract
There is a growing interest in traditional uses of plants for health care among different communities especially in the developing countries. Kashmir valley is a temperate agro-climatic zone of north-west temperate Himalayan region of India and is blessed with a diverse variety of medicinal flora. The traditional uses of plants against parasitic infections in human beings and their live-stock is a common practice in the valley as most of the populations are rural and conventional veterinary drugs are very expensive and therefore unaffordable. This study is an ethno-botanical survey of those plant species traditionally used as anthelmintic that may warrant scientific validation for efficacy. The survey utilized well structured questionnaire and detailed discussions and recorded 44 plant species belonging to 37 genera and 26 families claimed as traditional anthelmintics in different preparations and forms. Out of these some plant species like Artemisia absinthium (tethwen) and Achillea millifolium (pahel-ghassa) were scientifically validated for their claimed anthelmintic action against gastrointestinal nematode infections in sheep. A few of other plants like Allium sativum (rohun), Myrsine africana have been scientifically validated for their claim by other people in various parts of the world. These plants together with other species reported in this study could be further scientifically evaluated for in vitro and in vivo anthelmintic activity against a diverse variety of parasitic groups in host and non host animals. That will lay a foundation and set a targeted platform for pharmacological studies and development of novel anthelmintic products to fill a gap in the anthelmintic drug industry, which is facing the crisis of anthelmintic resistance to conventional anthelmintic drugs.
Highlights
Humans use plants for their basic needs like feeding, clothing, sheltering, hunting and nursing
The survey utilized well structured questionnaire and detailed discussions and recorded 44 plant species belonging to 37 genera and 26 families claimed as traditional anthelmintics in different preparations and forms
That will lay a foundation and set a targeted platform for pharmacological studies and development of novel anthelmintic products to fill a gap in the anthelmintic drug industry, which is facing the crisis of anthelmintic resistance to conventional anthelmintic drugs
Summary
Humans use plants for their basic needs like feeding, clothing, sheltering, hunting and nursing. In ethno-medicine, at least 80% of the world’s population in developing countries uses plant materials as their source of primary health care [1]. It is a well established fact that 25% of all medical prescriptions are based on substances derived from plants or plant-derived synthetic analogues. A lot of work has been done in the field of plant anthelmintics including both ethnobotanical surveys and scientific validation of their anthelmintic efficacies in many parts of the world. The valley harbours a rich and unique flora of medicinal plants being distinct from those in the rest of the country and other parts of the world. The present study was aimed at to survey the plants with traditional anthelmintic usage in Kashmir valley
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