Ethnobotanical study of Mandi Ahmad Abad, District Okara, Pakistan

• Published in: PloS one 2022-04, Vol.17 (4), p.e0265125-e0265125
• Main Authors: Munir, Mubashrah, Sadia, Sehrish, Khan, Adnan, Rahim, Bakht Zareen, Gagosh Nayyar, Brian, Ahmad, Khawaja Shafique, Khan, Arshad Mahmood, Fatima, Ishrat, Qureshi, Rahmatullah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal sciences; Arid regions; Arid zones; Biodiversity; Biology and Life Sciences; Botany; Citation analysis; Citation indexes; Conservation; Data collection; Documentation; Endangered & extinct species; Ethnobotany; Ethnobotany - methods; Extinction; Flowers & plants; Hepatitis; Herbal medicine; Heredity; Humans; Indigenous peoples; Interviews; Knowledge; Medicinal plants; Medicine and Health Sciences; Medicine, Traditional - methods; Native peoples; Okara; Pakistan; Physical Sciences; Phytotherapy; Plant resources; Plant sciences; Plant species; Plants, Medicinal; Population; Psoriasis; Questionnaires; Rural areas; Similarity; Skin diseases; Social Sciences; Species; Vomiting
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265125

This study hypothesized that native people have unique traditional knowledge of plant resources in the rural areas and basic objective was the documentation of this valuable inheritance. Ethnobotanical data was collected from a remote rural area of Mandi Ahmad Abad, Union council number NA-144 Tehsil Depalpur District Okara, Pakistan. A total of 94 informants were randomly interviewed to collect data about local names of plant species, mode of administration, recipes and ailments, and ethnobotanical uses through semi-structured questionnaire, interviews and group discussion methods. The collected data was statistically analyzed by calculating use value (UV), frequency of citation (FC), relative frequency of citation (RFC), factor of informant consensus (FIC), family importance value, and relative importance (RI). This study is also compared with ethnobotanical literature by using Jaccard's index (JI) for similarity analysis. A total of 126 species belonging to 52 families were documented. The Poaceae (13spp.), Leguminosae (12spp.), Solanaceae (10spp.) and Cucurbitaceae (10spp.) were dominant families. Highest used value (UV = 0.22) was obtained for Azadirachta indica. The minimum used value (UV) was showed by Alhagi maurorum, Eclipta prostrata, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Solanum virginianum and Trianthema potulacastrum (UV = 0.01). Hepatitis, stomach ulcer, bowel disorders, urinary problems, psoriasis, cancer, and leucoderma were the most treated ailments with ICF value of 1, followed by leucorrhea (ICF: 0.89), and vomiting (ICF: 0.86). The highest Jaccard's similarity index value (JI = 0.329) showed that plant species reported in our study was more similar with Arid regions of Northern Punjab, Pakistan. This novel ethnobotanical report concluded that traditional knowledge about use of medicinal plants is decreasing due to allopathic medicines. Immediate steps should be taken for conservation and documentation of traditional knowledge of plants especially those having medicinal properties.