Ethnobotanical inventory and folk uses of indigenous plants from Pir Nasoora National Park, Azad Jammu and Kashmir

doi:10.1016/S2221-1691(15)30011-3

Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine

Volume 5, Issue 3, March 2015, Pages 234-241

https://doi.org/10.1016/S2221-1691(15)30011-3 Get rights and content

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ABSTRACT

Objective

To document the medicinal and other folk uses of native plants of the area with a view to preserve the ethnobotanical knowledge associated with this area.

Methods

The fieldwork was conducted during a period of one year. Data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire and interviews with indigenous tribal people and traditional health practitioners residing in the study area.

Results

The present study documented ethnobotanical uses of 104 plant species belonged to 93 genera and 51 families. Results revealed that most of the documented species were used medicinally (78 spp., 44.07%). Leaves were found to be the most frequently used part (69 spp., 42.86%) for the preparation of indigenous recipes and for fodder.

Conclusions

The current research contributes significantly to the ethnobotanical knowledge, and depicts a strong human-plant interaction. There is an urgent need to further document indigenous uses of plants for future domestication.

KEYWORDS

Ethnobotany

Pir Nasoora

Indigenous knowledge

Conservation

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PEER REVIEW

Peer reviewer

Prof. MJ Potgieter, Department of Biodiversity, University of Limpopo, South Africa. Tel: +27 15 268 2224, E-mail: [email protected]

Comments

This paper does contain valuable information. In this regard the paper presents baseline data on the use of plant resources by communities surrounding the Pir Nasoora National Park. As such it is valuable from a conservation point of view. Also it could lead to the identification of new and novel pharmaceutical leads from the medicinally used plant species.

Details on Page 239

Available online 2 Feb 2015