A comprehensive study on ethnomedicinal plants used by tribal communities of Ramhal forest division Kupwara

Abstract

Introduction: Medicinal plants have a history of thousands of years and are highly regarded worldwide as a rich source of therapeutic agents for preventing diseases. The importance of herbal medicine in the treatment of diseases is beyond doubt. The ethnomedicinal potential of the Ramhal forest range has not been investigated. So, an endeavor has been made with the assistance of nearby people including herbalists, shepherds and the elder knowledgeable individuals to archive the ethno botanical data of medicinal plants of Ramhal forest range.
Material and methods: The data was quantitatively analyzed using use-value (UV), informant consensus factor (ICF).
Results: A total of 65 medicinal plants belonging to 40 families have been collected from the study area. Most of them belong to Asteraceae and Lamiaceae (9 species each) followed by Apiaceae (3 species) while the remaining families contribute only one are two species each. The medicinal plants were mainly herbs followed by Leaves, whole plant, seed, areal part, fruits and stem latex. The important species on the basis of UV were Acorus calamus (0.62), Aconitum heterophyllum (0.66), Artemisia absinthium (0.67), Saussurea costa (0.65), Rheum webbianum (0.63) and the lowest ICF is recorded for Stipa sibirica. The values ICF ranged between 0.89 to 0.96.
Conclusion: The contribution of plant part used is dominated by roots, collection of roots leads to decrease in the population of parent plant and may be extreme danger for survival of the frequently uncommon and gradual reproducing medicinal plants. The plants collected by these strategies require maintainable utilization and conservation strategies. Native population still believe medicinal plants for his/her primary healthcare, however at the same time are afraid about the loss of flora in the wild.
Key words: Ramhal forest range, Medicinal Plants, Kupwara, Ethnomedicinal, Traditional knowledge.