The present study reports ethnobotanical information about plants, which were used by indigenous communities of two union councils of district Kotli AJK. The present study is first report of quantitative ethnobotany from study area. Rajh Mehal and Goi are representative union councils of district Kotli, Azad Jammu and Kashmir having large ranges diversity in habitat and climatic conditions. This district is naturally blessed with highly medicinal plants but unfortunately ethno-botanical information is sporadically known. The study area was surveyed for two consecutive years during moon soon period and ethnobotanical data was collected from 112 local inhabitants using a semi-structured, open ended questionnaire and by free listing method. Several quantitative indices including Informant Consensus Factor, Use Value, Frequency of Citation, Relative Frequency of Citation and Relative Importance Index were used to determine relative usage, benefits and coverage of ethno-medicine. The agreement of homogeneity between the present and previous studies and among the indigenous communities was evaluated using the Jaccard Index. The summary statistics and correlation between use value and relative frequency of citation was calculated in SPSS v 16. The data from free listing method was analyzed by using ANTHROPAC package in R software. Comparison of indigenous knowledge among different genders and age groups was made using Spearman correlation test, the result showed that men had higher information (14.05) about plant uses than females (8.55) in the study area. Male informants reported 63.8% (±10.18) of total recorded species and 76% (±4.13) uses while female informants reported 38.8% (±6.06) species and 68% (±3.65) uses. Smith's Salience analysis indicates that most of the plants in the study area were useful against abdominal pain and worms, constipation and pain. Diseases were classified into twelve different disease categories based on International Classification of Diseases (ICD) classification, with Skin and related symptoms (S00-T98) had highest value (0.91) of Informant's Consensus Factor (IC) followed by Circulatory problems (I00-I99) and Diabetes (E10-E14) each having IC value of 0.90. Aerial parts of 21 plant species were utilized in herbal preparations followed by leaves (20 spp.) and oral mode of admiration was most common among inhabitants. Among all the studied species Zanthoxylum alatum was found highly important with a relative importance value of 93.75 followed by Adhatoda zeylanica with an importance value of 91.67. High dependency of local inhabitants on traditional medicines was confirmed by higher values of informant consensus factor, which showed that people in study area still use herbal medicines as a primary source of their health care. The present study indicated that area was rich in medicinal plant knowledge and there is a need to exploit this information for drug development and pharmacological activities in addition of conservation and management of this valuable plant resource of the area.

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Background This is the first comprehensive report on the traditional and novel uses of medicinal plants practiced by the indigenous communities of the Sudhnoti district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan. The area is rich in folklore and indigenous medicinal knowledge due to a unique tribal composition and socioeconomic conditions. This study aimed to document traditional knowledge of native plant use by the local communities, particularly those used for therapeutic purposes. Methods Field surveys were conducted from September 2015 to March 2017. Interviews with 125 local inhabitants of different tribes, age groups, genders, and occupations were conducted using structured and semi-structured questions along with group discussions. Data gathered on plant uses, local names, and modes of application of each plant species were organized in tables. Ethnobotanical indices such as use value (UV) and cultural significance index (CSI) were used to produce quantitative information on the plant use category, frequency, and cultural preference of species. Reports on therapeutic uses of medicinal plants were compared with previous studies. Results In all, 88 plant species from 45 families were reported, out of which 67 (77%) were used in ethnomedical applications. Asteraceae, Rosaceae, Fabaceae, and Lamiaceae were the dominant families. Berberis lycium was the most valued plant species, followed by Zanthoxylum armatum and Taraxacum officinale. Mentha arvensis had the highest cultural significance, followed by Mentha longifolia, Punica granatum, and Zanthoxylum armatum. Leaves were the most preferred plant parts in the preparation of medicine exclusively or mixed with other parts. The most frequently used process of crude preparation of medicinal plants was cooking. Oral intake was the predominant route of administration. Conclusions Our comparative analysis confirmed that most of the plants documented have uses that match those previously reported for the region and other parts of the world, with the exception of novel medicinal uses for 11 plant species, including Verbascum thapsus for earache, Elaeagnus umbellata for hepatitis, Achillea millefolium for oral care, Dicliptera roxburghiana to prevent sunstroke in cattle, Rumex hastatus for allergy antidote, Pyrus pashia for hepatitis, and Nerium oleander for diabetes.

Indigenous people have been using local grasses for rearing their animals for centuries. The present study is the first record of traditional knowledge of grasses and livestock feeding system from the Thal desert in Pakistan. A snowball sampling method was used to identify key participants. Information was collected from the respondents from six districts of Thal Desert through semi-structural questionnaire and site visits. The data was analyzed through Smith's salience index and Composite Salience using ANTHROPAC package in R software. On the whole 61 grasses were recorded from the study area: most of them belong to the Poaceae family (52 species). Based on palatability grasses were categorized into three major groups i.e. (A) High priority, (B) Medium priority and (C) Low priority. Species in Group A, abundantly present in the study area represent a source of highly palatable forage for all ruminants. 232 (141M +91W) local participants were interviewed. Participants were grouped into three major age categories: 20-35 (48 participants), 36-50 (116 participants) and 51-67 years old (68 participants). ANTHROPAC frequency analysis confirmed the Smith's salience index and Composite Salience; Cynodon dactylon was the favorite species (6.46 SI, 0.6460 CS) followed by Cymbopogon jwarancusa (5.133 SI, 0.5133 CS) and Sorghum sp. was the third most salient species (5.121 SI, 0.5121 CS). Grasses were mostly available during the months of August and October and had also ethnoveterinary importance. This document about the traditional feeding of livestock in Thal Desert can underline the importance of conserving a traditional knowledge, which was poorly documented before.

Diabetes mellitus is the most common human disease and there is growing interest for plant based therapy in managing diabetes mellitus specifically in the developing world. In the present study, Rhazya stricta Decne extract was analysed for its antidiabetic activities. Crude methanolic extracts of different plant parts were tested in vivo on albino mice Balb-C, for the reduction of blood glucose, urea, cholesterol, triacylglycerides and glycosylated haemoglobin. Results obtained showed that leaves of R. stricta have best antidiabetic effect by reducing blood glucose level, Glycosylated haemoglobin, triacylglycerides and Cholesterol in hyperglycaemic mice. The R. stricta leaves extract being most active was further fractionated by solvent extraction using n- Hexane, ethyl acetate, chloroform and water and all fractions were tested for same activities. It was found that ethyl acetate fraction is most effective in the reduction of blood glucose level at fasting and random conditions and blood glucose reduction was comparable to Glucophage, a standard antidiabetic drug. The present study suggests that Rhazya stricta leaves extract and its ethyl acetate fraction has great potential for development of antidiabetic drug.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/icpj.v4i2.21484 International Current Pharmaceutical Journal, January 2015, 4(2): 353-361