Ethno pharmacological relevanceEthno medicinal traditional knowledge regarding the uses of indigenous medicinal plants for treating various human infectious diseases is totally in hold of the elder community members. The young generation is not much aware about such vital traditional medicinal practices.Aim of studyTo document, accumulate and widely disseminate the massive indigenous knowledge of century's practiced therapeutic uses of medicinal plants by the local people living in this area.Materials and methodsA total of 134 local inhabitants (78 male and 56 female) were interviewed through questionnaire method. The data obtained were quantitatively analyzed through the use value, fidelity level index and relative frequency citation. Plants specimen were preserved and mounted on herbarium sheets and labeled, cataloged and deposited with voucher numbers in Hazara University Herbarium, Mansehra, Pakistan (HUP).Results74 plant species belonging to 70 genera and 42 families were documented in the current study. These medicinal plant species are used commonly as an ethno medicine against 56 various diseases such as digestive disorder, cough, pain and skin diseases etc. Herbaceous plant species were the dominant among plants studied which were 57% of the total plants, followed by shrubs (23%) and trees (20%). Asteraceae was the leading family among collected medicinal plant species (10.81%). Maximum medicinal plant species were used for treatment of digestive disorders (9.09%) and cough (7.44%). Most widely part used is leaf (27.9%), followed by fruit (13.5%) and seed (13.5%) for the treatment of different ailments by the traditional healers. The medicinal plant species with greater use values were Berberis lycium (0.91) and Cannabis sativa (0.81). The medicinal plant species with maximum fidelity level were Ziziphus jujuba (100%) and Lonicera caprifolium (92.31%) whereas the medicinal with most relative frequency citation were B. lycium (0.313), Ziziphus nummularia (0.276). The comparative result reveals that 36% of medicinal plant species were reported for the first time from Abbottabad regarding their uses, whereas 26% of plant species were reported with different medicinal uses. Brugmansia suaveolens and Allium griffithianum were recorded for the first time from Pakistan as well as from other countries across the globe for currently reported medicinal uses.ConclusionThe current study revealed the importance to document and launch list of all possible plants that are used in ethno medicinal practices in the study area. Future antimicrobial, antivirals, and pharmacological studies are required to ratify the efficacy and safety of the medicinal plants species.
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Investigation of traditional medicinal floral knowledge of Sarban Hills, Abbottabad, KP, Pakistan Farhana Ijaz a , Zafar Iqbal a,n , Inayat Ur Rahman a , Jan Alam a , Shujaul Mulk Khan b , Ghulam Mujtaba Shah a , Khalid Khan a , Aftab Afzal a a Department of Botany, Hazara University Mansehra, Pakistan b Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan article info Article history: Received 8 September 2015 Received in revised form 22 December 2015 Accepted 24 December 2015 Available online 29 December 2015 Keywords: Ethno medicine Jaccard index Used value Abbottabad Pakistan abstract Ethno pharmacological relevance: Ethno medicinal traditional knowledge regarding the uses of in- digenous medicinal plants for treating various human infectious diseases is totally in hold of the elder community members. The young generation is not much aware about such vital traditional medicinal practices. Aim of study: To document, accumulate and widely disseminate the massive indigenous knowledge of century's practiced therapeutic uses of medicinal plants by the local people living in this area. Materials and methods: A total of 134 local inhabitants (78 male and 56 female) were interviewed through questionnaire method. The data obtained were quantitatively analyzed through the use value, fidelity level index and relative frequency citation. Plants specimen were preserved and mounted on herbarium sheets and labeled, cataloged and deposited with voucher numbers in Hazara University Herbarium, Mansehra, Pakistan (HUP). Results: 74 plant species belonging to 70 genera and 42 families were documented in the current study. These medicinal plant species are used commonly as an ethno medicine against 56 various diseases such as digestive disorder, cough, pain and skin diseases etc. Herbaceous plant species were the dominant among plants studied which were 57% of the total plants, followed by shrubs (23%) and trees (20%). Asteraceae was the leading family among collected medicinal plant species (10.81%). Maximum medic- inal plant species were used for treatment of digestive disorders (9.09%) and cough (7.44%). Most widely part used is leaf (27.9%), followed by fruit (13.5%) and seed (13.5%) for the treatment of different ailments by the traditional healers. The medicinal plant species with greater use values were Berberis lycium (0.91) and Cannabis sativa (0.81). The medicinal plant species with maximum fidelity level were Ziziphus jujuba (100%) and Lonicera caprifolium (92.31%) whereas the medicinal with most relative frequency citation were B. lycium (0.313), Ziziphus nummularia (0.276). The comparative result reveals that 36% of medicinal plant species were reported for the first time from Abbottabad regarding their uses, whereas 26% of plant species were reported with different medicinal uses. Brugmansia suaveolens and Allium griffithianum were recorded for the first time from Pakistan as well as from other countries across the globe for currently reported medicinal uses. Conclusion: The current study revealed the importance to document and launch list of all possible plants that are used in ethno medicinal practices in the study area. Future antimicrobial, antivirals, and phar- macological studies are required to ratify the efficacy and safety of the medicinal plants species. & 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Ethno botany is the study of the interactions between plants and people over time and space. Consequently, plants are essential to the functioning of all social societies and to the operation of all ecosystems (Smita et al., 2012). Use of plants by men is as ancient as the creation of human life on earth. Plants were first used for the persistence of food shelter and medicine. Therefore, human race is mostly dependent on plants and their needs increased day by day. For the welfare of humans, wild plants have constantly been used for their important qualities (Ali et al., 2003; Ali, 2003). In the developing countries therapeutic plants are silent used for Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jep Journal of Ethnopharmacology http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2015.12.050 0378-8741/& 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected](F. Ijaz), [email protected](Z. Iqbal), [email protected](I.U. Rahman), [email protected](J. Alam), [email protected](S.M. Khan), [email protected](G.M. Shah), [email protected](K. Khan), [email protected](A. Afzal). Journal of Ethnopharmacology 179 (2016) 208–233
Transcript
Journal of Ethnopharmacology 179 (2016) 208–233
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
http://d0378-87
n CorrE-m
hajibotashuja60khalidk
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jep
Investigation of traditional medicinal floral knowledge of Sarban Hills,Abbottabad, KP, Pakistan
Farhana Ijaz a, Zafar Iqbal a,n, Inayat Ur Rahman a, Jan Alam a, Shujaul Mulk Khan b,Ghulam Mujtaba Shah a, Khalid Khan a, Aftab Afzal a
a Department of Botany, Hazara University Mansehra, Pakistanb Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:Received 8 September 2015Received in revised form22 December 2015Accepted 24 December 2015Available online 29 December 2015
Ethno pharmacological relevance: Ethno medicinal traditional knowledge regarding the uses of in-digenous medicinal plants for treating various human infectious diseases is totally in hold of the eldercommunity members. The young generation is not much aware about such vital traditional medicinalpractices.Aim of study: To document, accumulate and widely disseminate the massive indigenous knowledge ofcentury's practiced therapeutic uses of medicinal plants by the local people living in this area.Materials and methods: A total of 134 local inhabitants (78 male and 56 female) were interviewedthrough questionnaire method. The data obtained were quantitatively analyzed through the use value,fidelity level index and relative frequency citation. Plants specimen were preserved and mounted onherbarium sheets and labeled, cataloged and deposited with voucher numbers in Hazara UniversityHerbarium, Mansehra, Pakistan (HUP).Results: 74 plant species belonging to 70 genera and 42 families were documented in the current study.These medicinal plant species are used commonly as an ethno medicine against 56 various diseases suchas digestive disorder, cough, pain and skin diseases etc. Herbaceous plant species were the dominantamong plants studied which were 57% of the total plants, followed by shrubs (23%) and trees (20%).Asteraceae was the leading family among collected medicinal plant species (10.81%). Maximum medic-inal plant species were used for treatment of digestive disorders (9.09%) and cough (7.44%). Most widelypart used is leaf (27.9%), followed by fruit (13.5%) and seed (13.5%) for the treatment of different ailmentsby the traditional healers. The medicinal plant species with greater use values were Berberis lycium (0.91)and Cannabis sativa (0.81). The medicinal plant species with maximum fidelity level were Ziziphus jujuba(100%) and Lonicera caprifolium (92.31%) whereas the medicinal with most relative frequency citationwere B. lycium (0.313), Ziziphus nummularia (0.276). The comparative result reveals that 36% of medicinalplant species were reported for the first time from Abbottabad regarding their uses, whereas 26% of plantspecies were reported with different medicinal uses. Brugmansia suaveolens and Allium griffithianumwere recorded for the first time from Pakistan as well as from other countries across the globe forcurrently reported medicinal uses.Conclusion: The current study revealed the importance to document and launch list of all possible plantsthat are used in ethno medicinal practices in the study area. Future antimicrobial, antivirals, and phar-macological studies are required to ratify the efficacy and safety of the medicinal plants species.
& 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Ethno botany is the study of the interactions between plants
and people over time and space. Consequently, plants are essentialto the functioning of all social societies and to the operation of allecosystems (Smita et al., 2012). Use of plants by men is as ancientas the creation of human life on earth. Plants were first used forthe persistence of food shelter and medicine. Therefore, humanrace is mostly dependent on plants and their needs increased dayby day. For the welfare of humans, wild plants have constantlybeen used for their important qualities (Ali et al., 2003; Ali, 2003).In the developing countries therapeutic plants are silent used for
F. Ijaz et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 179 (2016) 208–233 209
health care. However with the passage of time the accessibility ofwild plants are exaggerated because wild plants are vanished bytheir actual habitat and exchanged with the cultivated plants(Buitron, 1999). Owing to the great rate of manmade medicinesand inaccessibility of medicinal health care services in many urbanareas, the inhabitants are assured to depend on medicinal plants.Between 35,000 and 70,000 plant species are charity in traditionalmedicines to treat different diseases (Lewington, 1990). About 70–80% of the world inhabitants still use traditional medicine (Pei,2001). Ali (2008) and Ali and Qaiser (1986) reported that 1572genera and 5521 species have been found in Pakistan, generallyrestricted to the hilly regions.
In Pakistan, the field of ethnobotany has been introduced re-cently as compared to other countries but in recent years a lot ofwork has been done in this field by many researchers in differentareas of Pakistan (Haq and Hussain, 1993; Hussain and Khaliq,1996; Khan, 1998; Shinwari and Khan, 1999, 2000; Gilani et al.,2001; Matin et al., 2001; Qureshi, 2002; Hussain, 2003; Shinwariand Gilani, 2003; Ahmad, 2004; Hamayun et al., 2005; Mu-hammad et al., 2005; Qureshi et al., 2006; Sher and Hussain, 2007;Qureshi et al., 2008; Sher and Hussain, 2009; Qureshi et al., 2009;Abbasi et al., 2010a,b; Khan and Khan, 2011; Hazrat et al., 2011;Noor and Kalsoom, 2011; Khan, 2012; G.M. Shah et al., 2013; N.A.
Fig. 1. Map of the study area. (A) Abbottabad, (B) Sarban H
Shah et al., 2013; Ishtiaq et al., 2014; Khattak et al., 2015; K.U. Khanet al., 2015; S.M. Khan, 2015) but no information and doc-umentation is done especially on Sarban Hills, Abbottabad.
As inhabitants of the area are mainly using traditional means tocure diseases and this asset of indigenous knowledge is transfer-ring from generation to generation only through verbal means ofcommunication. So this research was an effort to document andpreserve this folk asset, to explore the ethno medicinal knowledgeof the study area, to enlist the indigenous medicinal plants used bylocal people for common day ailments, to create the awarenessamong the local community about the protection of native med-icinal flora and to collect medicinal plants of the area for properidentification and future references.
2. Materials and methods
Present study was carried out from February 2012 to Septem-ber 2013. During this period the area was visited twice a month forcollection of data relevant to economically important plants andbiodiversity. The study was conducted in three stages.
ills, (C) and (D). View of Abbottabad from Sarban Hills.
Fig. 2. Some collected medicinal plants from the study area. (A) Brugmansia suaveolens, (B) Punica granatum, (C) Clematis grata, (D) Indigofera heterantha, (E) Rydingia limbata,(F) Lantana camara, (G) Lonicera caprifolium, (H) Jasminum humile, (I) Justicia adhatoda, (J) Oxalis corniculata, (K) Cyperus rotundus and (L) Geranium spp.
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2.1. Study area
The study area was Sarban Hills which are located in the Ab-bottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan (Fig. 1). It covers the areaof about 179,653.5 km2 area lies geographically within between34°09′N latitude and 73°13′E longitude at an altitude of 4120 feet(1260 m) and 110 km north of the Capital Islamabad, 130 km fromRawalpindi and 150 km northeast of Peshawar having a total po-pulation of 881,666 (IUCN, 2004). Kashmir lies to the east of thecity. Two distinct mountains range the border of District i.e. SarbanMountains and Habiba Mountain. The study area includes the lo-calities Kehal, Khung, Nogakhai, Selhad and Kotha Qabar.
2.2. Field trips and data collection
Field work was carried out in order to investigate the tradi-tionally using plants, ecological and floristic studies of variousparts of Sarban hill in different seasons. Field trips were arrangedaccording to flowering and fruiting seasons of the plants. The field
work included interviews, observations and collection of variousplant species and their photography (Fig. 2). Collection numberwas given to each plant specimen and field data like vernacularname, habit, parts used, medicinal importance and other relevantinformation was noted in the field note book.
Interviews were conducted to the local inhabitants, the herb-alists “Hakims” (local physicians of the eastern system of medi-cine) and Pansaries (medicinal plants sellers in the local markets).Questions concerning the utility of different plants, plant partused, route of administration, economic or market value wereasked through questionnaire.
Total 134 local inhabitants (78 male and 56 female) were in-terviewed through questionnaire, 37 interviewers under age of20–40 out of which 22 were male and 15 female, 55 under age of41–60 (31 male and 24 female), 25 interviewers were under age of61–70 (15 male and 10 female) and 17 were of above 70 age out ofthem 10 were male and 7 female (Fig. 4). Grade et al. (2009) andDilshad et al. (2008) reported that the information gatheredthrough interviews helps in the documentation of valid traditional
Fig. 3. Collected medicinal plants with voucher number.
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knowledge and uses as a reference for scientific research.
2.3. Herbarium work
Collected plant specimens were systematically tagged, pressed,dried and mounted on herbarium sheets (Fig. 3). For this purpose,specimens were kept in presser for two weeks at room tempera-ture. After 12 h the blotting papers were changed. This practicewas repeated for 48 h. The specimens were poisoned in solution ofmercuric chloride and absolute alcohol (2 g mercuric chloride,dissolved in 1000 ml absolute alcohol) and mounted on the stan-dard sized herbarium sheets (11.5�17.5 in.2). The data noted inthe field note book during field survey was transferred to the labeland pasted on the respective herbarium sheet on the right side at
Fig. 4. No. of local informants interviewed.
the bottom.
2.4. Plant identification
The Plant Taxonomists Dr. Ghulam Mujtaba Shah and Dr. JanAlam identified the herbarium specimens and confirmed with thehelp of available taxonomic literature (Ali and Nasir, 1970–2002;Ali and Qaiser, 1986). Medicinal plant species were also photo-graphed at the time of collection (in live form) as shown in Fig. 2and in preserved form after allotment of voucher number (Fig. 3).Mounted specimens were deposited in the Herbarium of HazaraUniversity Mansehra, Pakistan (HUP) and voucher number wasallotted to all specimens after identification (Table 1).
2.5. Market assessment
Economic, commercial and medicinal value of indigenousplants utilized in the study area has been enquired in the marketof Abbottabad and Mansehra. In this regard, a questionnaire wasadopted to interview the local plant collectors and medicinalplants sellers in the local markets. Marketing chain for the eco-nomic plants collectors and people involved in medicinal plantstrade was investigated. Based on these surveys, a list of medicinalplants was prepared with emphasis on plant market availabilitystatus, collection methods and local prices of these plants. Theavailable literature on the market survey was also collected andmade a review from it to compare it with the present findings.
Table 1Medicinal plants with voucher number, vernacular and family name, habit, part uses, medicinal uses, UV, RFC and FL.
Botanical Name VernacularName
Voucher No. Family Name Habit Part Used Medicinal Uses UV RFCs FL Ui,
FCs &Iu
Medicinal uses from literature
Acacia modesta Wall. Phulai HUP-3809 Fabaceae T Gum Tonic use for back pain,dysentery
0.45 0.179 41.67 24
Achyranthes aspera L. Kutri HUP-3834 Amaranthaceae H Whole plant Cough, asthma, kidney problem 0.73 0.142 26.32 19
Adiantum capillus-veneris L. Fern HUP-3744 Adiantaceae H Fronds Bronchial disorder, fever, cough,diuretic, cold
Abbreviations of plant habit: H – Herb, S – Shrub, T – Tree.( )¼Similar use, ( )¼Dissimilar use and ( )¼Use not reported.1¼G.M. Shah et al. (2013) and N.A. Shah et al. (2013); 2¼Shah et al. (2012); 3¼Gilani et al. (2001); 4¼Gilani et al. (2006); 5¼Qureshi et al. (2008); 6¼ Abbasi et al. (2010a); 7¼Butt et al. (2015); 8¼Abbasi et al. (2013); 9¼Afzalet al. (2009); 10¼Kayani et al. (2015); 11¼Abbasi et al. (2010b); 12¼Ahmad et al. (2009); 13¼Akhter et al. (2013); 14¼Ahmad et al. (2015); 15¼Saqib et al. (2014); 16¼Kosalge and Fursule (2009); 17¼Vitalini et al. (2009);18¼Sargın et al. (2013); 19¼Asase and Kadera (2014); 20¼Khan et al. (2004); 21¼Estomba et al. (2006).
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Fig. 7. No. of medicinal plant species and
Fig. 6. Collection of ethno medicinal plants of Sarban Hills.
Fig. 5. Life form of plants used for ethno medicinal practices.
F. Ijaz et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 179 (2016) 208–233226
2.6. Data analysis
The data collected during fieldwork was analyzed through usedvalue (UVi), relative frequency citations (RFCs) and fidelity level(FL%). The data was checked and compared with the availableliterature through Jaccard index (JI %).
2.6.1. Used value (UVi)To know about medicinal importance of individual plants used
values (UVi) were applied to give a quantitative form of its relativeimportance to the informants neutrally (Phillips et al., 1994). Thisquantitative study evaluates the relative importance of eachmedicinal species based on relative use among informants. Usevalue was determined using the following formula:
=∑ U
NUVi
ii
Ui is the number of use reports cited by each informant for agiven plant species.Ni is the total number of informants interviewed for a givenplant species.
2.6.2. Relative Frequency of Citations (RFCs)Relative Frequency of Citations was used to calculate the local
importance of each species by using the formula (Tardìo and Par-do-De-Santayana, 2008).
=N
RFCsFCs
FCs is the number of informants who mentioned the use of thespecies.N is the total number of informants of the study. (In this study,N¼134).
2.6.3. Fidelity level (FL%)The fidelity level (FL) is the percentage of informants claiming
the use of a certain plant for the same major purpose and this wascalculated according to the following formula (Alexiades, 1996):
( )= ×FL % 100IIpu
Ip is the number of informants who suggested the use of a plantspecies for a particular disease.
genera belonging to different families.
Fig. 10. Routes of administration against different diseases.
Fig. 9. Plants parts used in traditional treatment of different diseases.
Fig. 8. No. of plant species used for various diseases.
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Iu is the total number of informants who mentioned the sameplant for any disease.
2.6.4. Jaccard index (JI)Jaccard index (JI) is calculated by comparison of previously
published studies from regional and other areas as well as atglobal countries by analyzing the percentages of quoted speciesand their medicinal uses by using the following formula:
= ×+ −
ca b c
JI100
where “a” is the number of species of the area A, “b” is the numberof species of the area B, and “c” is the number of species commonto A and B (Gonza et al., 2008).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Diversity of medicinal plants
A total of 74 plant species belonging to 70 genera and 42 fa-milies with 1468 use reports were recorded (Table 1). Details of allthe documented medicinal plants species including scientificname, vernacular name, voucher number, family name, habit, partused, medicinal uses, used value, relative frequency citations andfidelity level for each plant species and number of use reports (Ui,
FCs and Iu) for each plant species are given in Table 1. Herbaceouslife form was the dominant with 57%, followed by shrubs (23%)and trees (20%) (Fig. 5). The reason for herbaceous dominancy inthe study area might be the easy availability resulting fromabundant growth in wild habitats. Less tree percentage might bedue to high altitude, geographic and climatic factors. The localinformants reported that most of the practitioner healers andhakims prevalently use herbs against diseases due to their easyavailability. Inline results were found from other researchers onmedicinal plants conducted in Ethiopia (Giday et al., 2003, 2007),Nepal (Upreti et al., 2010), Swat, Pakistan (Akhter et al., 2013),Karak, Pakistan (Khattak et al., 2015), Abbottabad, Pakistan (Ijazet al., 2015), Swat, Pakistan (Khan et al., 2015a, 2015b) they re-ported herbaceous life form as the dominant one for medicinalpurposes. It is estimated that majority of medicinal plants found insummer season i.e. 65% were in the month of May–August, 10%Sep–October, 10% Nov–December and 15% of plants in Jan–Feb-ruary (Fig. 6). Same was noticed by Badshah et al. (2013) whoreported that in spring and summer maximum number of species
Fig. 11. Use value and relative frequency citations of medicinal plants for various diseases cited by the informants.
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was found than any other season (67.3% and 48.7%), respectively.Durrani et al. (2010) and Ahmad et al. (2009) also stated in linefindings, they reported that spring and summer flora/ aspect havehigher number of species than other aspects.
Results revealed that Asteraceae is the dominant family used inthe treatment of different diseases with 151 URs highest familywise use reports (8 spp. and 8 genera). This family was also re-ported as the leading family with maximum number of medicinalplants species to cure diseases by Teklehaymanot and Giday(2007), Mesfin et al. (2009) and Bhattarai et al. (2010). Asteraceaewas followed by Fabaceae having 7 spp. and 7 genera with 144 usereport, Lamiaceae having 5 spp. and 5 genera with 106 URs,Polygonaceae and Rosaceae each having 3 spp. and 3 genera with57 URs and 50 URs respectively. Malvaceae having 3 spp. and2 genera with 57 URs. Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Brassicaceae,Primulaceae, Urticaceae and Verbenaceae having (2 spp. and2 genera) each. Whereas only 3 families Moraceae, Oleaceae andRhammnaceae having 1 genera and 2 spp. The rest of 27 familieshaving 1 species each as shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 12. Fidelity level (%) of medicinal plants fo
3.2. Disease treated by traditional practitioners
Traditional medicinal knowledge is a part of the Pakistani cul-ture and plant-based medicines are traditionally used by the ma-jority of the population (Qureshi et al., 2009). Seventy four med-icinal plant species were used by the local traditional practitionersfor 56 different diseases. Majority of the species were used for thetreatment of digestive problems (9.09%), followed by cough(7.44%). It was noticed that the local inhabitants are interested touse herbal therapies mostly for digestive and cough problems in-dicated that the plant species of this area have versatile ther-apeutic uses against diseases. The other noticeable diseases werepain (4.96%) followed by diuretic and skin diseases (4.55%). Thereason behind citations for urinary ailments might be due to thelow intake of water during cold season which resulting in shortageof water in blood circulation and due to this reason skin problemsalso occurs because much use of water keeps the skin fresh.However, diuretic and skin diseases are followed by eye problemsand inflammation (3.72%) each, carminative, diarrhea, fever,rheumatism and arthritis (3.31%) each. A main reason for bone
r various diseases cited by the informants.
Table 2Comparison of the current study with previous studies at regional, neighboring and global level.
S. No Study area Year Number of re-corded plantsspecies ofaligned areas
Plantswith simi-lar uses
Plants withdissimilaruses
Total speciescommon inboth area
% of plantspecies com-mon in bothareas
Species en-listed only inaligned areas
Species en-listed onlyin study area
% of speciesenlisted onlyin study
% of plantwith simi-lar uses
% of dissim-ilar uses
JaccardIndex (JI)
Citation
1 Abbottabad,Pakistan
2013 67 4 9 13 19.40 54 61 82.43 5.40 12.16 12.74 G.M. Shah et al.(2013) and N.A.Shah et al.(2013)
2 Abbottabad,Pakistan
2012 54 3 8 11 20.37 43 63 85.13 4.05 10.81 11.57 Shah et al.(2012)
Fig. 13. Percentage of plant species regarding their medicinal use reports.
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problems was found to be walking in mountains (Schlage et al.,2000). Rheumatism and arthritis are followed by blood pressureand purifier, laxative, throat problems, tonic and wound healing(2.89%) each. For the treatment of asthma, diabetes and respiratorydisorder 2.48% of species were used, followed by kidney problem(2.07%). 1.65% of medicinal plant species were used to treat cold,constipation, fungal infections and intestinal worms, followed byantiseptic and ulcer (1.24%) each. Whereas 0.83% of medicinalplant species were used to treat diseases which include cholera,febrifuge, jaundice, malarial fever, as sedative and female pro-blems (Fig. 8). Externally treated diseases were skin problems andwound healing while rest all was treated orally as reported bymany other researchers (Upreti et al., 2010; Lulekal et al., 2013;Luitel et al., 2014: Ijaz et al., 2015).
Different parts of the plant accumulate various secondarymetabolites that can be helpful to treat a variety of disorders usedby the local community (G.M. Shah et al., 2013; N.A. Shah et al.,2013, 2014a,b). Traditional healers of the Sarban Valley use 18different parts of plants for the treatment of different diseases(Fig. 9). Out of which leaves are the most widely used part (27.9%),followed by whole plant (17.7%), seeds and fruit (13.5%) each, root(9.3%), flower (2.5%), leaves paste, pods, stem, aerial part, bark andwood bark (1.6%) each. While the minimum part used are frond,branches, shoot, gum, root bark and trunk (0.84%) each as shownin Fig. 6. Monteiro et al. (2011) also reported leaves as the mostused part.
3.2.1. Routes of remedies administratedThere are different utilizations of medicinal plant species for
various ailments. Results revealed that 74 medicinal plant specieswere used traditionally through different administrational routesout of which extraction was the most dominant and frequent way(30%, 440 URs) use reports. Bussmann (2006) reported oral as themost frequent way (64%) to administrate remedies. Extraction wasfollowed by powder (22%, 323 URs), poultice (19%, 279 URs), tonic(13%, 191 URs), infusion (10%, URs 147). Whereas lowest use formwas decoction (6%, 88 URs) to treat 56 various diseases (Fig. 10).Burlakoti and Kunwar (2008) also reported various popular formof therapeutic preparation frommedicinal plants in Western Nepalsuch as juice, decoction, paste, and powder.
3.3. Use value of medicinal plants
The use value (UVi) is a quantitative method that demonstratesthe relative importance of species or plant family for a population(Vendruscolo and Mentz, 2006). The use value of medicinal plantsspecies ranges from 0.21 to 0.91 (Fig. 11). The species with highused values and use reports were B. lycium (0.91 UVi and 42 URs),C. sativa (0.81 UVi and 35 URs), Z. nummularia (0.80 UVi and 37URs) 3rd Ficus carica (0.78 UVi and 28 URs) and Geranium mas-catense (0.77 UVi and 30 URs). However the lowest value wasobserved in Xanthium strumarium (0.21 UVi and 11 URs). Max-imum used values of mentioned medicinal plants might be due totheir common distribution and local practitioner's awarenesswhich make the first choice for ailment (Ullah et al., 2014). Table 1describes all of the plants listed with their respective indications,used value, method of use and parts used to prepare the ethnomedicines.
3.4. Relative frequency citations of medicinal plants
A relative frequency citation (RFCs) shows the local importanceof each species with reference to informants who cited thesemedicinal plant species. The value of relative frequency citations of74 medicinal plant species ranges from 0.060 to 0.313 with 1468use reports (Fig. 11 and Table 1). Reason for the high RFCs may be
F. Ijaz et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 179 (2016) 208–233 231
wide-ranging distribution, easy availability and ethnic culture forcuring various diseases by using these medicinal plant species. Themedicinal plant species with maximum relative frequency cita-tions were B. lycium (0.313 RFC and 42 URs), Z. nummularia (0.276RFC and 37 URs), C. sativa (0.261 RFC and 35 URs), Dysphaniaambrosioides (0.254 RFC and 34 URs) and Rydingia limbata (0.246RFC and 33 URs). Signorini et al. (2009) reported that Asparagusacutifolius was the most used species (RFC¼0.71), Pamungkaset al. (2013) found Cocos nucifera as the most frequently cited plantwith RFC value of 0.97. However the lowest relative frequencycitations value was observed in Melia azedarach (0.060) and Z.jujuba (0.060). These results reinforces the idea that these speciesare the most important for the population studied and that theinformants share knowledge about practices and plants used inethno medicinal practice at Sarban valley. In future, these resultsmight be used as most vital source for relating and evaluatingresearch in related academic disciplines for future drug discoveryand sustainable use of plants for therapeutic uses (Mukherjee andWahile, 2006). Medicinal plant species with maximum RFC shouldbe progressed to biological, phytochemical and pharmacologicalstudies to assess and prove their validity (Mukherjee et al., 2012).
3.5. Fidelity level (%) of medicinal plants
Fidelity level (FL%) is used to identify species that are mostpreferred by the inhabitants for the treatment of certain ailments.The fidelity level ranges from 11.11% to 100% (Fig. 12 and Table 1).The medicinal plant species with highest fidelity level was Z. ju-juba cited 100% for laxative, L. caprifolium (92.31%) for diuretic andkidney problems and Pyrus pashia (88.89%). These medicinal plantspecies may be confirmed as important medicinal plants throughfurther assessment and evaluation through biological activities,pharmaceutical and phytochemical activities. Ilker et al. (2009)reported Allium cepa with 100% fidelity level. However the lowestfidelity level among medicinal plant was of Myrsine africana(11.11%). Besides, plants with minimum FL% should not be aban-doned as declining to remark them to the future generation that itcould raise the threat of gradual vanishing of the knowledge(Chaudhary et al., 2006).
3.6. Consistency of ethno medicinal uses and its comparison withprevious studies through Jaccard index
The similarities and differences in ethno medicinal studiesseem to target the importance of traditional knowledge on med-icinal plants in different regions, where historical (Moerman,1998), phytochemical (Leonti et al., 2003) and ecological (Ladioet al., 2007) factors interact in their selection. The traditionalmedicinal uses of plants documented in the study area are com-pared with 21 published ethno-medicinal studies from regional toneighboring as well as at global level. In the current study, reviewof literature indicates that of the 74 reported medicinal plants(Table 2), the similarity index uses ranges from 0% (Khan et al.,2004; Vitalini et al., 2009; Ahmad et al., 2009; Asase and Kadera,2014; Butt et al., 2015) to 16.21% (Abbasi et al., 2010b; Saqib et al.,2014) while dissimilar uses vary from 0% (Kosalge and Fursule,2009) to 13.51% (Saqib et al., 2014; Butt et al., 2015). The less si-milarities were noticed in comparison with analyzed studies thatmay be probably the result of a remarkable cultural adaption thatare important indicative of current extensive change in populationand habitat structure (Leonti et al., 2009) as similarity indices arevery sensitive to variation in population sizes (Wolda, 1981). In thepresent study, the highest degree of similarity index was foundwith studies conducted by Abbasi et al. (2010b), and Saqib et al.(2014) with JI 24.32 and 23.15 respectively, while the lowest in-dices of similarity was found with studies of Vitalini et al. (2009)
and Sargın et al. (2013) with JI 0.77 and 0.86 respectively. Variationin Jaccard Index might be due to the distance between study areaand other regions (Fig. 13).
The present study was comparatively analyzed with the studiescarried out within the region, neighboring areas as well as withaligned countries. In Pakistan all researches related to ethnomedicinal plants published from 2001 to 2015 were analyzedwhile from aligned countries 6 research articles from 2004 to 2013were reviewed. It was found that majority of plants reported in thepresent study are confined to the present geographical regionbecause the study area is located in lesser Himalayas and may bedue to their native habitats and supporting conditions. The ana-lysis of our study revealed that 36% of medicinal plant specieswere reported for the first time from Abbottabad regarding theiruses whereas 26% of plant species were found with differentmedicinal uses like Adiantum capillus-veneris is used for bronchialdisorder, fever, cough, diuretic and cold while from same region G.M. Shah et al. (2013) and N.A. Shah et al. (2013) reported the plantspecies for antidandruff and Butt et al. (2015) for scorpion andsnake bite (Table 3). Some plants of this study area were alsowidely distributed in aligned countries due to their wide adapt-ability in different ecological zones and reported for medicinaluses but during comparative analysis some new medicinal useswere observed. In aligned countries Albizia lebbek, Punica grana-tum and Bauhinia variegata were also reported but their uses varyfrom our study except a few. B. suaveolens, A. griffithianum, P. pa-shia and Ipomoea hederaceae were recorded for the first time fromPakistan as well as from aligned regions. Besides this, Incarvilleaemodi and Ficus sarmentosa was reported for the first time fromAbbottabad region for asthma and Jasminum sambac for diuretic.In medicinal plants of Sarban Hills, B. lycium and Rydingia limbataseems to be the most well-known plants to the locals. Our findingsare in contrast to previous ethno botanical studies in neighboringcountries as well as to other parts of the world, where differentplant species were reported with respect to their preference use(Abbasi et al., 2010c; Khan et al., 2013; Cornara et al., 2009; Mi-therman et al., 2005).
The importance and novelty of this study is that no work hasbeen done previously on Sarban Hills neither ethno medicinallynor statistically by applying UVi, RFCs, FL (%) and JI (%). By com-paring this work with literature reveals that some medicinalplants have similar uses against various infectious diseases whichled us to think about its usefulness by making pharmacologicalefficacy studies on the plants used in different regions for similardiseases. Therefore, we believe that such studies may contribute toresearch on both traditional ethno botanical knowledge and alsosourcing of raw materials for the production of commercialpharmaceuticals.
4. Conclusions
Medicinal plants are playing a vital role in traditional medi-cines. In present study, versatile and precious data regarding tra-ditional medicinal knowledge of local flora has been documentedwhich consists of 74 plant species belonging to 42 families. Most ofthe medicinal plant species were used in treatment of digestiveproblems (9.71%). The UVi and user reports (URs) of the study areaplants in health care practices were B. lycium (0.91) and C. sativa(0.81). The medicinal plant species with greater RFCs were B. ly-cium (0.313) and Z. nummularia (0.276) and species with highestFL% were Z. jujuba (100%) and L. caprifolium (92.31%). The Jaccardindex reveals that 36% of medicinal plants were reported first timefrom Abbottabad by their uses and 26% with different medicinaluses. B. suaveolens and A. griffithianum were recorded for the firsttime from Pakistan as well as from aligned regions. Incarvillea
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emodi was reported for the first time from Abbottabad region forasthma and cough and Dicliptera bupleuroides was for fever. Al-though, the modern health care facilities are available in the studyarea but the local community still rely on herbal remedies. Manyimportant medicinal plant species are near to endanger due toover exploitation. The chances of loss of traditional knowledgefrom the human community are always present due to reductionof natural resources and modernization of the society. So, it isnecessary to document this worth traditional knowledge of thenatural wealth. Future antimicrobial, antivirals, and pharmacolo-gical studies are required to ratify the efficacy and safety of themedicinal plant species.
Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge local community of thestudy area for sharing their traditional medicinal knowledge.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found inthe online version at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2015.12.050.
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