Ethnomedicinal knowledge of a marginal hill community of Central Himalaya: diversity, usage pattern, and conservation concerns

Ojha, S. N.; Tiwari, Deepti; Anand, Aryan; Sundriyal, R. C.

doi:10.1186/s13002-020-00381-5

Cited by 40 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Plants have been used for their curative properties since antiquity (Rajeswara Rao, 2016;Ojha et al, 2020). Consequently, human medicine is so linked to plant biodiversity that most of the current modern medicines were rst derived from medicinal plants (Kiguba et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicinal plants in Butalejja District, Eastern Uganda: plants, medical importance, conservation and Medicinal Traditional Knowledge

Ssenku

Okurut

Namuli

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: Currently, the global consumption of herbal medicine is increasing steadily, incurring extinction risks to the medicinal plant species. Uganda is one of the top ten countries with alarming levels of loss of medicinal plant biodiversity, and erosion of the associated Medicinal Traditional Knowledge (MTK). This study documented medicinal plant species, and examined the approaches used in preventing extinction of these species and the associated MTK in Butalejja district. Methods: A cross – sectional study design was adopted to conduct an ethnopharmacological survey, using semi-structured questionnaires administered to purposively selected herbalists. Simple descriptive statistics were adopted for data analysis using STATA version-15.0. Results: A total of 133 medicinal plant species, belonging to 34 families and 125 genera were identified. Most species belonged to family Fabaceae (22; 65%), and Solanaceae (10; 29%). Leaves were the commonest organ used (81; 80%), followed by roots (15; 15%). Medicinal herbs were mainly administered orally as decoctions (100; 34.6%), and infusions (45; 16%). The most cited diseases treated were cough (24; 7.74%), Ulcers (23; 7.42%), and Malaria (14; 4.52%). Medicinal plants were majorly harvested from homestead farms and roadside vegetation, with wetlands being the least cited habitat. Efforts to stop the extinction of medicinal plants and MTK were inadequate. Conclusion and recommendations: There was high dependency on medicinal plant species for primary healthcare and income generation. Noted also was the accelerated loss of medicinal plant biodiversity due to habitat destruction, especially in swamps. The conservation of medicinal plants and MTK was largely attributed to traditional cultural values. There is need for validation of efficacy and safety of key medicinal plants identified in this study, to support their future adoption in clinical medicine and pharmaceutical industries. Inclusion of traditional cultural ideals in national biodiversity conservation programs is warranted.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicinal plants in Butalejja District, Eastern Uganda: plants, medical importance, conservation and Medicinal Traditional Knowledge

Ssenku

Okurut

Namuli

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…Informant consensus factor can analyze the difference of medicinal plant species used by local people in the treatment of a certain type of disease. In a specific cultural group, it can objectively reflect the importance of certain plants in the treatment of a certain type of disease ( Miara et al, 2018 ; Ojha et al, 2020 ). Fifty kinds of diseases reported by the informant were divided into 12 categories.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicinal Plants and Fungi Traditionally Used by Dulong People in Northwest Yunnan, China

Cheng

Lü

et al. 2022

Front. Pharmacol.

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The Dulong, an ethnic group living in the isolated Northwest Yunnan of Southwest China, have directly used a wide of plants to serve their needs and have accumulated rich traditional knowledge about medicinal plants over years. Unfortunately, little has been reported about the medicinal plants used by the Dulong people. Ethnobotanical data were collected through semi-structured interviews, guided field trips, and quantitative analysis. Prior informed consent was obtained before each interview. The surveys allowed for the collection of sociodemographic data and traditional knowledge about medicinal plants and their uses. This study used relative frequency of citation (RFC) to identify the most culturally significant medicinal plants and used informant consensus factor (FIC) to evaluate agreement among informants. A total of 105 medicinal plant species belonging to 69 families were recorded. Amongst these 69 families, Asteraceae (8 species), Polygonaceae, Ranunculaceae, and Rosaceae (4 species each) were the dominant families. The whole plants were the most frequently used part in the preparation of medicines. The most common preparation method was decoction and the most frequent application route was oral administration. Coptis teeta (0.15), Acorus calamus (0.12), Ophiocordyceps sinensis (0.11), Tanacetum tatsienense var. tanacetopsis (0.11), and Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis (0.08) were shown to be the most useful plants as indicated by their relatively high RFC values. Among the usage types of medicinal plants, the highest FIC values were recorded for the circulatory system (FIC = 0.91), the immune system (FIC = 0.89), and the nervous system (FIC = 0.85). Furthermore, sixty-two medicinal plants utilized by the Dulong for medicinal purposes also have dietary use. Traditional knowledge associated with medicinal plants has been seriously threatened in recent decades. In the future, modern approaches should be used to demystify traditional medicine. However, significant measures need to be taken to protect from loss the important traditional knowledge gained by the Dulong through their experience and inheritance. A collective effort should be made to promote and conserve the important traditional medicinal knowledge and outline a plan for sustainable use of medicinal plants and improve local economic development under the premise of protection.

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“…Inhabitants tend to use leaves for medicines, as opposed to other plant parts, because of the ease of collection and abundant availability [1,165,210]. Moreover, the inhabitants are of the opinion that the leafy parts of the plant store a high quantity of secondary metabolites and essential oils, and therefore, they believe that leaves are better for nutraceutical medicine, phytotherapy or treatment of various health ailments: that is in accordance with [33,105,194,211].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnobotany of the Himalayas: Safeguarding Medical Practices and Traditional Uses of Kashmir Regions

Bhat

Singh

Surmal

et al. 2021

Biology

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The present study was carried out to enlist the medicinal plants used by the local inhabitants of developing countries such as India, and the district of Kupwara of the Kashmir Himalaya has been targeted. Our research is one of the first study focusing on the statistical evaluation of the cross-cultural analysis between three different communities i.e., Dard, Kashmiri and Gujjar, of the study area. Sampling was carried out in eight villages in 2017 to 2020, and data were collected from 102 informants based on walking transects, to collect plant specimens, and semi-structured interviews. The medical usages of all collected taxa were grouped into 15 disease categories and 81 biomedical ailments. In this study, we documented around 107 plant taxa belonging to 52 families from the local inhabitants of the Kashmir Himalaya, which regulate the livelihood of the people and support cultural ecosystem services. Asteraceae, Rosaceae, Lamiaceae, Malvaceae, Ranunculaceae, Poaceae, Solanaceae, Polygonaceae, Plantaginaceae and Brassicaceae are the top most dominant families. Herbaceous groups of plants were more common than trees and shrubs, and 71.96% of herb taxa were employed as medicine. Liliaceae, Caprifoliaceae and Portulacaceae (FUV = 0.24 each) have the highest family use value (FUV). The most prominent family was Asteraceae (seven genera, nine taxa), followed by Rosaceae and Lamiaceae (six genera, six taxa each). Persicaria Mill., Rheum L., Aconitum L. and Artemisia L. were prominent genera. Valeriana jatamansi Jones ex Roxb. (47UR), Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don (45UR), Arisaema jacquemontii Blume (37UR), Asparagus racemosus Willd. (36UR) and Rumex acetosa L. (35UR) were the most important plant taxa with reference to use-reports. The ethnomedicinal applications of Aesculus indica Wall. ex Cambess., Solanum pseudocapsicum L., Ranunculus hirtellus Royle and Cormus domestica (L.) Spach plant taxa are reported here for the first time from the Himalayan Kashmiri people. We recommend further research on ethnopharmacological application of these newly recorded ethnobotanical plants. The medical usage of the plant was limited to different parts of the plant. In terms of the usage percentage, whole plant (26.17%), leaves (24.30%) and roots (19.63%) were found to have the highest utilization. The powder form (40.19%) was the most frequently employed method of drug/medicine preparation, followed by the utilization of extracted juice and/or other extracts (22.43%). The ICF values range from 0.85 to 1.00. Their use to remedy parasitic problems (PAR) and insect bites (IB) (ICF = 1.0 each) had the maximum consensus mentioned by the informants, although the number of taxa employed under this category was very limited. The different plant taxa used for the treatment of the gastrointestinal problems (GAS) was the most prominent disease category (262 URs, 16.19%, 25 taxa, ICF = 0.90). About 65% of the plant taxa studied is indigenous to the Asia or Himalayan regions, and around 35% is found to be exotic in nature. A strong positive correlation was found between age, gender, educational qualification and medicinal plant knowledge. No significant association was between people of different communities interviewed in terms of medical knowledge of the plants, p = 0.347 (>0.05) and χ2 = 2.120. No significant difference was found between the number of species documented concerning gender as p = 0.347 (>0.05) and χ2 =0.885. This study provides the comprehensive status of ethnomedicinal knowledge among three different communities of the study area. This study provided an impetus in discovering the baseline primary data for molecules which would help in drug discovery and management of various diseases, apart from conserving the genepool of plants in the investigated area.

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Ethnomedicinal knowledge of a marginal hill community of Central Himalaya: diversity, usage pattern, and conservation concerns

Cited by 40 publications

References 38 publications

Medicinal plants in Butalejja District, Eastern Uganda: plants, medical importance, conservation and Medicinal Traditional Knowledge

Medicinal plants in Butalejja District, Eastern Uganda: plants, medical importance, conservation and Medicinal Traditional Knowledge

Medicinal Plants and Fungi Traditionally Used by Dulong People in Northwest Yunnan, China

Ethnobotany of the Himalayas: Safeguarding Medical Practices and Traditional Uses of Kashmir Regions

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