Quantitative Ethnobotanical Study of Indigenous Knowledge on Medicinal Plants Used by the Tribal Communities of Gokand Valley, District Buner, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Sulaiman Sulaiman,Rainer W Bussmann,Wahid Hussain,Sheharyar Khan,Maroof Ali,Dildar Hussain,Sikandar Shah

doi:10.3390/plants9081001

Abstract

The current study on the traditional use of medicinal plants was carried out from February 2018 to March 2020, in Gokand Valley, District Buner, Pakistan. The goal was to collect, interpret, and evaluate data on the application of medicinal plants. Along with comprehensive notes on individual plants species, we calculated Use Value (UV), Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC), Use Report (UR), Fidelity Level (FL), Informant Consensus Factor (FCI), as well as Family Importance Value (FIV). During the current study, a total of 109 species belonging to 64 families were reported to be used in the treatment of various ailments. It included three families (four species) of Pteridophytes, 58 families (99 species) of angiosperm, one family (three species) of Gymnosperms, and two families (three species) of fungi. The article highlights the significance of domestic consumption of plant resources to treat human ailments. The UV varied from 0.2 (Acorus calamus L.) to 0.89 (Acacia modesta Wall.). The RFC ranged from 0.059 (Acorus calamus L. and Convolvulus arvensis L.) to 0.285 (Acacia modesta Wall.). The species with 100% FL were Acacia modesta Wall. and the fungus Morchella esculenta Fr., while the FCI was documented from 0 to 0.45 for gastro-intestinal disorders. The conservation ranks of the medicinal plant species revealed that 28 plant species were vulnerable, followed by rare (25 spp.), infrequent (17 spp.), dominant (16 spp.), and 10 species endangered. The traditional use of plants needs conservation strategies and further investigation for better utilization of natural resources.

Highlights

The inhabitants of remote regions commonly rely upon traditional knowledge concerning medicinal plants for the treatment of many diseases
The present study addresses the issue of ethnobotanically important plants as an important source for the treatment of many ailments in the Gokand Valley
A total of 109 species belonging to 64 families were reported to be used in the treatment of various ailments

Summary

Introduction

The inhabitants of remote regions commonly rely upon traditional knowledge concerning medicinal plants for the treatment of many diseases. The global community has acknowledged that many ethnic communities depend on natural resources, including medicinal plants. The use of plants as traditional therapeutics provides an actual alternative in the healthcare system in evolving nations, especially for rural populations [9,10,11,12]. The Himalayan region, including parts of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Nepal, Myanmar, India and Pakistan is recognized as a hotspot of biodiversity, for medicinal plant species [16,17,18]. Most countries in Asia harvest medicinal plants for their internal traditional uses, very few, especially China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Iran and Pakistan, are capable of producing them in commercial quantity. Pakistan ranks as the 7th producer of medicinal plants in Asia [18,19].

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