Ethnobotanical Exploration of Traditional Medicinal Plants Among the Rural Inhabitants of District Muzaffarabad, Kashmir Himalayan Region

Syed Waseem Gillani; Mushtaq  Ahmad; Muhammad  Zafar; Muhammad  Manzoor; Ghulam Mujtaba  Shah; Hamayun  Shaheen; Wajid  Zaman; Shazia  Sultana; Bibi  Sadia; Khaydarova Khilola  Khishlatovna

doi:10.14719/pst.3265

Authors

Syed Waseem Gillani Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2926-0723
Mushtaq Ahmad Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2971-2848
Muhammad Zafar Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2002-3907
Muhammad Manzoor Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5118-3957
Ghulam Mujtaba Shah Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra 21120, Pakistan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9525-610X
Hamayun Shaheen Department of Botany, University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Muzafarabad 13100, Pakistan https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5978-192X
Wajid Zaman Department of Life Sciences, Yeungnam University 38541, South Korea https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6864-2366
Shazia Sultana College of Life Sciences, Neijiang Normal University Sichuan 641100, China https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2534-9387
Bibi Sadia Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4381-2137
Khaydarova Khilola Khishlatovna Department of Sociology, National University of Uzbekistan, Tashkent 100174, Uzbekistan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4516-8101

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.3265

Keywords:

Conservation, Ethnobotany, Medicinal, Rural communities, Traditional Knowledge

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge provides insights into the therapeutic properties of medicinal plants used in local communities for basic healthcare. This research focuses on documenting the medical knowledge of rural communities that rely on medicinal plants in their traditional healthcare practices in the district of Muzaffarabad, Kashmir Himalayas. A field survey was carried out in 2022 and 2023 to collect data on wild medicinal plants. Informants were selected at random to learn about indigenous medical practices through semi-structured interviews and group discussions with 95 informants. The ethnomedicinal data were quantitatively analyzed using indices of use value (UV) and relative frequency citation (RFC). The study area documented 57 medicinal plants from 34 different families. Polygonaceae was the most dominant family, contributing 14.03% to medicinal plants, followed by Lamiaceae (10.52%) and Rosaceae (7.01%). Among medicinal plants, communities predominantly used herbs (64.91%) and leaves (29.09%) to treat several health problems. Mentha longifolia had the highest reported use value (1.71), and Bergenia ciliata had the highest recorded RFC value (0.72). Rural inhabitants continue to rely on wild medicinal plants as their primary source of medication. The transmission of indigenous knowledge to descendants is steadily declining and is primarily limited to healthcare practitioners and the elderly. These communities have kept important indigenous knowledge, which must be preserved for sustainable resource management and conservation. A more extensive field exploration is required to discover all of the indigenous knowledge in rural areas of Kashmir.

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