Traditional ethnobotanical knowledge of wild plants of Tilla Jogian district Jhelum, Pakistan

摘要

This research was conducted to explore and document traditional ethnobotanical knowledge of wild plants of Tilla Jogian, and its adjoining areas, District Jhelum of Punjab, Pakistan. The data were collected by field visits and interview of local informants using open-ended and close-ended methodology. In this study, 64 plants of 37 families from five village areas were explored and their ethnobotanical information was collected. In field work, 45 informants (25 males and 20 females) consisting of peasants, herbalists, house-women, nomadic people and traditional practioners were interviewed. Lamiaceae was prevalently dominant family of the area and out of 64 species; 31 species (47%) had single-use while 27 species (40%) double-use and nine species (15%) species multiple-use. Ethnobotanical quantitative analysis showed that relative frequency of citation (RFC) of studied taxa ranged from 0.97 to 0.02. High RFC of the plant proves their high citations and use in traditional ethnomedicines. According to use values (UV) index, Justicia adhatoda L. had (UV: 0.26), Croton bonplandianus Bail. (UV: 0.17) and Salvia plebia R. Br. (UV: 0.15); revealing that these species had high use in the area and were being exploited extensively. Relative importance (RI) values of the plants depicted their potential to cure different infirmities of the body. Jaccared index (JI) tool was used to compare current ethnobotanical knowledge with previous reports. JI values ranged from 2.07 to 16.07 which proved that most of ethnobotanical data provided was novel and reported for the first time. In this study, it was determined that various biotic interferences especially grazing, over exploitation and cutting of plants was the main pressure on many species, hence, the study area Tilla Jogian demands urgent measures for protection of wild plants of the area for future use and conservation.