Ethnobotanical study of Makra Hills district Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan

Abstract

Background: It is the first ethno-botanical study to preserve the ethno-flora of Makkra hills along with their different uses to document the indigenous knowledge. This study enumerated and highlighted the ethno-botanical significance of plants for different used categories by local people in unexplored and biodiversity rich region of Makkra hills AJ&K, Pakistan.Methods: A questionnaire method was adopted to conduct an ethno-medicinal study. A Questionnaire were filled by researcher during interviewing the local people in their native languages and data was analyzed by quantitative ethnobotanical indices such as Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC), Use Value (UV), and Relative Importance (RI).Results: Our findings revealed 68 plant species belonging to 64 genera of 36 families were used by the inhabitants of Makkra hills for various purposes. Angiosperms were leading in number with the contribution of 62 species of ethnoflora of study area. Herbaceous flora contributed 75% of ethnoflora of study area. Leading plant families were Poacceae, Compositae and Polygonaceae. Classification of ethnoflora based on use categories revealed the most used category was medicinal with 57 plant species followed by food 26 species and 19 species with miscellaneous uses. Among plant parts usage leaves were most used parts with the representation of 26 plant species.Three quantitative matrices were used to calculate the important ethnobotanical species of study area with their versatility in uses. Based on Use Value index and Relative Frequency Citation, Juglans regia showed higher values of 2.62 and 0.84 respectively. Berberis lycium was the most versatile species of Makkra hills having a Relative Importance value of 1.80. Conclusions:We conclude that the people of Makkra hills are still harbouring a good knowledge due to their dependences on local flora. Conservation practices along with providence of basic facilities to the local inhabitants will be helpful to retain and recover the vegetation of Makkra hills in its original position.

An Insight into Indigenous Ethnobotanical Knowledge of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants from Kashmir Himalayan Region

“…Megaphylls, the least studied leaf form accounted for only 4.16% (Figure 4). Our results are similar to the previous studies in the study area (Manzoor et al 2023a, Mirzaman et al 2023. This resemblance shows that various ethnic communities in Kashmir with diverse cultural backgrounds use plants in comparable ways.…”

“…Many plant species had many portions that were used for different reasons, such as gum, latex, and bark. Our results in terms of plant part used are comparable and almost similar to the results of (Shaheen et al 2013, Haq et al 2021, Mirzaman et al 2023. These ingredients have a long history of use in traditional medicine and as food.…”

“…The local identification and citation of plants within a certain region determines their significance, which is referred to as Use Value (UV) and it was calculated by following (Mirzaman et al 2023, Sharif et al 2022. It was calculated as follows:…”

“…1). Furthermore, Juglans regia is more prevalent in several Himalayan valleys, bark is thought to be beneficial in the treatment of arthritis and toothache and wood is used to make furniture due to its high quality (Taha & Al-wadaan, 2011, Khan et al 2013, Haq et al 2021, Mirzaman et al 2023. The high usage and reliance of people on these plants demonstrates the deep relationship between indigenous communities and local flora, notably for the treatment of common diseases.…”

Ethnomedicinal appraisal of the medicinal flora among the sub-alpine and alpine Iindigenous communities of Palas Valley Kohistan, Northern Pakistan

“…The other more notable ICF (0.266) was indicated for sexual diseases and (0.260) for nervous disorders. This shows common occurrence of disorders in the study sites either due to contamination of water or poor hygiene (Adzu et al 2003, Mirzaman et al 2023, Schlage et al 2000. This high ICF values shows reasonable respondents' reliability on the utilization of species of medicinal plant (Lin et al 2002), the lower ICF value reported in urinary problems, body energizers, and infectious diseases such as chicken pox, measles, and dengue fever demonstrates a lack of homogeneity in the informants' knowledge.…”