Ethnobotanical Profiling of Tehsil Dhirkot District Bagh Azad Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

This Ethnobotanical study was aimed to document the indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants of dhirkot district Bagh AJK along with their therapeutic values and ethnophormacological importance. The ethnobotanical data was collected by using the open-ended questionnaire from the local people about the use of medicinal plants.  The current study reported three plant species, viz: Sarcoccoca saligna (Ganeera), Rumex hastatus (Chukhri), Cichurium intybus (Kasni) are mainly used for different ailments. The Plant species selected on the basis of used value were subjected to antibacterial activity by using the disc diffusion method. Different statistical techniques were employed to analyze the data of informant consensus factor (ICF), fidelity level (FL), use value (UV) and relative frequency citation (RFC). Current study reported 93 plant species belonging to 46 families and 81 genera for the treatment different ailments like stomach, liver, diabetes, skin, kidney, blood disorders. The most frequent plant part used was leaf (40%), followed by fruit (23%), whole plant (14%), stem and seeds (8% each), tuber (4%) and flower (1%). Modes of administration were grouped into 7 categories including raw use (30 use citation) followed by decoction (28), powder (14), paste and extract (7) and seeds (1 use citation). Fresh plant material was most preferable method and oral administration was the highly prevalent. The highest RFC value was calculated for the gastro-paresis (0.71) by Zanthoxylum alatum and the highest UV value was calculated by Malia azedarach (0.54) for fever, blood purification. Similarly, Juglans regia, Sarcoccoca saligna and Datura stramonium were show highest fidelity level (FL=100%). Local communities were highly dependent on the medicinal plants and reported the best therapeutic values for specific disorders. Urgent attention must be needed to conserve the local flora, detailed documentation of indigenous knowledge and phytochemical/pharmacological authentication of different plants used for different diseases.