title: Ethnomedicinal knowledge and relative importance of indigenous medicinal plants of Cholistan desert, Punjab Province, Pakistan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  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.
  
  
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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: Department of Plant Sciences, Quiad-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
authors: Nadeem
authors: N
authors: Ahmed
authors: 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.
authors: Adeel
authors: A
authors: Mahmood
authors: Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, H-9 Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors: S S
authors: SS
authors: Tahir
authors: Department of Plant Sciences, Quiad-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
authors: Asghari
authors: A
authors: Bano
authors: Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
authors: Riffat Naseem
authors: RN
authors: Malik
authors: Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
authors: Seema
authors: S
authors: Hassan
authors: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan.
authors: Aisha
authors: A
authors: Ashraf
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003625:Data Collection; D003889:Desert Climate; D020834:Ethnopharmacology; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D010154:Pakistan; D008517:Phytotherapy; D028321:Plant Preparations / Q000145:classification / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000145:classification
chemical_list: D028321:Plant Preparations
keywords: Ethnopharmacology; Frequency of citation; Indigenous plants; Pakistan; Used value