Nadeem Ahmed1, Adeel Mahmood2, S S Tahir3, Asghari Bano1, Riffat Naseem Malik4, Seema Hassan5, Aisha Ashraf6. 1. Department of Plant Sciences, Quiad-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. 2. Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. Electronic address: adilqau5@gmail.com. 3. Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, H-9 Islamabad, Pakistan. 4. Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. 5. Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. 6. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan.
Abstract
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ethnomedicinal studies are significant for the discovery of new crude drugs from indigenous reported medicinal plants. The current study aimed to report the indigenous medicinal knowledge of plants and herbal remedies used as folk medicines in Cholistan desert, Punjab Province, Pakistan. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Rapid appraisal approach (RAA), semi-structured interviews, group meetings with herbalists, landowners and local people having awareness about the medicinal action of plants were employed to collect the data. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: This study reports 70 medicinal plants belonging to 27 families that were disseminated among 60 different genera and Poaceae was the predominant family over others with 13 reported medicinal plants. Among plant parts, leaves were the dominant over others with 26.4% used in herbal preparations followed by the stem (25.2%), fruit (21.5%), flower (16.3%), seed (6.5%), bark and pod (02%). Haloxylon recurvum exhibited the highest use vale (UV) 0.83 while least UV was exhibited by Mollugo cerviana that was 0.16. CONCLUSION: Important medicinal plants, reported in this study have been screened for phytochemical and pharmaceutical activities in different parts of the globe. It is recommended that reported medicinal plants having potent action for cancer and hepatitis must be screened for pharmacological activities.
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ethnomedicinal studies are significant for the discovery of new crude drugs from indigenous reported medicinal plants. The current study aimed to report the indigenous medicinal knowledge of plants and herbal remedies used as folk medicines in Cholistan desert, Punjab Province, Pakistan. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Rapid appraisal approach (RAA), semi-structured interviews, group meetings with herbalists, landowners and local people having awareness about the medicinal action of plants were employed to collect the data. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: This study reports 70 medicinal plants belonging to 27 families that were disseminated among 60 different genera and Poaceae was the predominant family over others with 13 reported medicinal plants. Among plant parts, leaves were the dominant over others with 26.4% used in herbal preparations followed by the stem (25.2%), fruit (21.5%), flower (16.3%), seed (6.5%), bark and pod (02%). Haloxylon recurvum exhibited the highest use vale (UV) 0.83 while least UV was exhibited by Mollugo cerviana that was 0.16. CONCLUSION: Important medicinal plants, reported in this study have been screened for phytochemical and pharmaceutical activities in different parts of the globe. It is recommended that reported medicinal plants having potent action for cancer and hepatitis must be screened for pharmacological activities.
Authors: Shabina Ishtiaq Ahmed; Muhammad Qasim Hayat; Muhammad Tahir; Qaisar Mansoor; Muhammad Ismail; Kristen Keck; Robert B Bates Journal: BMC Complement Altern Med Date: 2016-11-11 Impact factor: 3.659