Plants struggling to receive proper identity at Bhadaure Tamagi of Kaski district, Nepal

Abstract

Neglected and underutilized plant species have a potential to contribute to food security and poverty alleviation. Most plant species consumed as food across the world are neglected and underutilized. These includes plants with edible fruits, grains, leaves, nuts, oils, roots and tubers, fibers, medicines, spices, stimulants and their derived products. Until now, there was very limited information available on the utility of plants for different purposes in the study area. Thus, to minimize the gaps, the research was carried out at Bhadaure village of Kaski District, Nepal. Data were collected from the different sites through the application of Participatory Research Appraisal methods i.e. direct observation, household survey, individual interviews and key informant interview. This was followed by the field visit with the help of community members where collection of the plant samples and capturing of the photograph was done. Then each species was evaluated for nine parameters (extent of the production, extent of consumption, degree of consumption, perceived nutritional value, cultural importance, medicinal properties, market use, market value and contribution to household income). From the community interaction and field visit a list of 66 plants were extracted as underutilized plants in the study area. They were from various habitats. About 55% of the species were collected from natural or semi-natural vegetation, particularly forest. 33% of the plants were used for vegetable. The collection or harvesting period of the recorded plant were varies on the case of species. The availability of wild plants has also declined drastically. Young generation was not so much interested in these plants. Some of these plants were observed on market places being sold at competitive prices. Specific household members consume these plants. Commercialization of these fruits is mainly undertaken by the low resource base farmers.

Ethnomedicinal Uses of Plant Resources in the Machhapuchchhre Rural Municipality of Kaski District, Nepal

“…Before conducting extensive interviews, questionnaires were pre-tested with five informants and modified as required. Similarity, dissimilarity, and new indication of plants were confirmed by comparing with previous relevant data [6,7,11,12,13,22,27,28,30,31,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71].…”

“…However, improper and massive collections of roots may lead to complete destruction and decline of the plant from nature [62]. Herbs were found to be dominant growth form over others, being frequently used in Himalayan folk medicine and other countries [7,13,22,30,39,40,43,48,50,51,52,53,56,58,59,63,64,65,66,86]. The reason may be that our study site is located at a higher altitude, where trees are less abundant and other forms of plants are common [22].…”

“…Ethnobotanical study conducted by Adhikari and Fisher [31] reported 54 local plant species from the Ghandruk village located inside ACA. Kunwar [30] also reported 66 plant species from Bhadaure Tamagi of the Kaski district. Among all these reported medicinal plants in this study area, 81 of them were reported in the book “Plants and People of Nepal” [136].…”

“…There are a handful of ethnomedicinal studies carried out in Kaski district [27,28,29,30,31], while none is from the rural and remote villages of the Machhapuchchhre rural municipality. The present study, therefore, aims to investigate and document the plant-based indigenous knowledge of local people and explore their traditional uses.…”

Ethnobotanical study of plant resources in Dhurkot rural municipality, Gulmi district Nepal

“…This is an agreement with Acharya (2012) who found 39% of herbs with medicinal value in Resunga hill that is used by the Magar community of Badagaun VDC, Gulmi. However, the dominance of herbs in ethnomedicine is not limited to our study area only but was found to be the most dominant growth forms over trees, shrubs, and climbers and are being frequently used in Himalayan folk medicine (Mall, Chetri 2009, Uprety et al 2010, Rokaya et al 2010, Kunwar 2017, Luitel et al 2014, Hasan et al 2013, O'Neill, Rana 2016, Shrestha et al 2003, Shrestha, Dhillions 2003, Singh 2013, Singh et al 2012, Abbas et al 2017, Singh et al 2017, Thapa 2010, Acharya 2012, Chekole 2017, Maroyi 2017, Yaseen 2015, Umair et al 2019). It might be the reason that herbs are easily accessible in the ground for collection, storage, and transportation.…”