An ethno botanical perspective of traditional medicinal plants from the Khattak tribe of Chonthra Karak, Pakistan.
BACKGROUND
The present study was carried out with an aim to gather, evaluate and analyze the ethno botanical information of medicinal uses of the plant species possessed by the native Khattak tribe of the Chonthra, district Karak Pakistan. The region with poor documentation of traditional knowledge, preserving the local traditional knowledge, reporting new as well as rarely reported medicinal properties of medicinal plants, to be tested experimentally for validation.


METHODS
The medicinal uses of existing plant species were documented by oral communication with 103 people, all over above 60 years of age, born and residing in Chonthra. Information was gathered by semi-structured interviews with further analysis by indices like Relative frequency citation RFC and Medicinal use value MUV.


RESULTS
The study resulted with medicinal information on 66 plants species belonging to 34 families (using against 58 health related problems with 83 different preparations mainly administered orally and topical). The dominant families include Brasicaceae and Limiaceae. Withania coagulans and Pegnum harmala were the plant species quoted 100% by the informants with RFC values 1 each. The MUV were scattered between 1.24 and 0.03. The highest MUV were W. coagulans 1.24, Pegnum harmala 1.18, Fagonia cretica 1.14. This study for the first time include Nepeta lagopsis to the ethnobotanical wealth.


CONCLUSIONS
This study was an extension to the ethnobotanical research conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Pakistan. The target area being small and less number of plants with limited traditional knowledge can serve basis for further work focusing on rarely or non- reported plant species of pharmacological and phytochemical importance with active metabolite capable of broadening the sources of new drugs.
Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid.-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Khalid
K
Rehman
Department of Botany, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Zia-ur-Rehman
ZU
Mashwani
Department of Biotechnology, Quaid.-i-.Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Mubark Ali
MA
Khan
Centre of Plant Sciences and Biodiversity, University of Swat, Pakistan.
Zahid
Z
Ullah
Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid.-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Electronic address: hassaan_javed@yahoo.com.
Hassan Javed
HJ
Chaudhary
D005006:Ethnicity; D019448:Ethnobotany / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional / Q000379:methods*; D010154:Pakistan; D010946:Plants, Medicinal
Chonthra; Ethnobotany; Karak; Khattak tribe; Medicinal plants; Traditional use