title: Indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants from Gujranwala district, Pakistan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was focused with the aim to investigate and document the indigenous medicinal knowledge and commonly used medicinal plants from Gujranwala district, Pakistan and to establish a baseline data in continuing studies aimed at more comprehensive investigations on bio-active compounds of indigenous medicinal plants.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rapid appraisal approach (RAA) was used along with the interviews, group meetings with people having knowledge about indigenous uses of medicinal plants and individual meetings with herbalists were conducted, to collect the ethnomedicinal data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  About 71 species of medicinal plants belonging to 38 families have been documented through 203 informants. Most favored plant part used for indigenous medicine was leaves (38%) followed by the seed (13%), whole plant (11%), flower (9%), fruit (8%), root and bark (6%) and the main source of these medicines was wild herbs (54%) followed by the wild shrubs, wild trees (13%), cultivated herbs (10%), cultivated trees (5%), cultivated shrubs (3%) and wild grasses (2%). The herbal preparations were mainly administrated orally and topically.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gujranwala district has great diversity of medicinal plants and people are aware about their medicinal values. Few plants are playing vital role in the basic health care needs of study areas; such plants should be screened for detailed pharmacological studied to explore new biological compounds.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, PO 45320, Pakistan. adilqau5@gmail.com
authors.forename: Adeel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahmood
authors.forename: Aqeel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahmood
authors.forename: Riffat Naseem
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.forename: Zabta Khan
authors.initials: ZK
authors.lastname: Shinwari
mesh_terms: D019448:Ethnobotany / Q000379:methods; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional / Q000379:methods*; D010154:Pakistan; D008517:Phytotherapy; D028321:Plant Preparations / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D028321:Plant Preparations