The tribal belt of the Hindu Kush mountains is famous for its unique culture, ethnography, wild food plants, food systems, and traditional knowledge. People in this region gather wild plants and plant parts using them directly or in traditional cuisine, or sell them in local markets. However, there is a huge lack of documentation of the food system, particularly that related to wild food plants (WFP). In the current study, we focus on the uses and contributions of WFPs in the traditional tribal food system of the Hindu Kush valleys along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border. Ethnobotanical data were gathered through questionnaire surveys of 84 informants, including 69 men and 15 women, belonging to 21 different villages of the chosen area. In tribal societies men and women rarely mix and thus very few women took part in the surveys. We documented 63 WFP species belonging to 34 botanical families, of which 27 were used as vegetables, 24 as fruits, six in different kinds of chutneys (starters), and six as fresh food species. Fruits were the most used part (41%), followed by leaves (24%), aerial parts (24%), seeds (7%), stems (3%), and young inflorescences (1%). The reported uses of Carthamus oxyacantha, Pinus roxburghii seeds, and Marsilea quadrifolia leaves are novel for the gastronomy of Pakistan. The results reveal that WFPs provide a significant contribution to local food systems and play a role in addressing human nutritional needs, which are usually not met through farming practices. The tribal peoples of the Hindu Kush use WFPs for their nutritional value, but also as a cultural practice—an inseparable component of the tribal community’s lifestyle. This important traditional knowledge about the gathering and consumption of WFPs, however, is eroding at an alarming rate among younger generations due to the introduction of fast-food, modernization, and globalization. Therefore, appropriate strategies are imperative not only to safeguard traditional plants and food knowledge and practices, as well as the cultural heritage attached to them, but also to foster food security and thus public healthcare via local wild foods in the region.

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Background. Globally, humans traditionally use plants for the treatment of a variety of diseases. To document ethnomedical knowledge and practices, the remote Arange Valley of district Bajaur is still unexplored. The current study is a contemporary assessment that established the local knowledge of medicinal plants in the area.Methods. The area has diverse natural flora, and the local people rely on it for a variety of things, including traditional medicine. Semi-structured questionnaires were used in conjunction with direct interviews with 166 experienced persons to elicit ethnomedical information. The collected data were analyzed quantitatively for relative frequency citation (RFC), fidelity level (FL) and use value (UV).Results. It was recorded that 77 plant species from 46 families were being used in traditional medicine to treat a wide range of diseases. Lamiaceae with 11 species, was the most frequently utilized family, followed by Fabaceae with 5 species, Asteraceae, Polygonaceae, and Rosaceae, each with 4 species, one, two, or three species were contributed by the rest of the families. The distribution of habits included herbs (62.3%), shrubs (22.1%), and trees (13%) while lianas and parasites each made up 1.3%. Among the plant parts used in the production of remedies are leaves (39%), fruits, and roots (16% each), seeds, and the entire plant (8%) as well as rhizomes and areal stems with branches (4% each). Most medications are being used orally (68.97%) and topically (24.14 %) to treat chronic illnesses such as gastrointestinal problems, pulmonary infections, diabetes, kidney stones, urogenital tract infections and nerve stimulation. The quantitative analysis showed that the Berberis lycium and Sideroxylon mascatense have maximum RFC values i.e., 0.24 and 0.19, respectively used as a tonic, while Decaspermum blancoi exhibits an RFC value of 0.17 which is used for digestive disorders. The highest use values were recorded (1.0) for Sideroxylon mascatense and (0.78) for Berberis lycium.Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the area has a rich flora of medicinal plants and could be contributed to ethnobotanical knowledge. The data collected will serve as a basis for the comprehensive investigation of active molecular constituents of the medicinal flora of the area. Novel herbal medications in the field of pharmacology may soon be discovered via the investigation of these medicinal plants.

Medicinal plants are the primary and effective source to cure various human ailments throughout the globe. The remote area of the Pashat valley at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is still unexplored to document ethnomedicinal knowledge and practices. In the current study, the contemporary investigation recorded the native acquaintance of remedial plants. A total of 73 plant species belonging to 68 genera and 46 families were used by traditional communities for the treatment of 40 different kinds of human diseases including digestive, respiratory, urinary, skeletal, muscular systems, etc. The family Lamiaceae was found dominant with 9 species followed by Leguminosae and Solanaceae with 4 species each, Euphorbiaceae, Moraceae, Rhamnaceae and Rosaceae with three species each. The most frequently used parts of plants were leaves (35.7%) followed by fruits (22.4%), seeds (12.2%), roots (7.14%) and plants as a whole (6.12%). Whereas the remedy preparation approaches were in powder form (28.46%), decoction (26.15%), extract (20%) and a paste (11.54%). The quantitative ethnobotanical indices i.e. used value (UV), relative frequency citation (RFC), family importance value (FIV) and Jaccard index (JI) were calculated for all plant species. The used value (UV = 0.04) was found highest for Berberis lyceum, Myrtus communis, Punica granatum and Dodonea viscosa. Similarly, the maximum RFC value of 0.25 was investigated for Foeniculum vulgare and Olea ferruginea each. Besides, the highest FIV of 96.08% and 58.17% values were calculated for the family Lamiaceae and Solanaceae. This study shows that the corresponding area is rich in medicinal plants and could contribute to ethnomedicinal knowledge. The collected data will establish a baseline for the comprehensive investigation of active molecular constituents of the medicinal flora of the area. Soon, the exploration of these medicinal plants could discover new herbal drugs in the field of pharmacology.

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