Ethnopharmacological relevance of indigenous medicinal plants from district Bahawalnagar, Punjab, Pakistan.
BACKGROUND
Indigenous plants have played a key role in the treatment of human diseases. This study was aimed to report the indigenous medicinal plants from Bahawalnagar district of Southern Punjab, Pakistan to document the important medicinal plants and herbal preparations.


METHODS
Rapid appraisal approach (RAA) involved direct interaction with local people and observations during the field visits; was used to collect data during March to June and August to December 2012.


CONCLUSIONS
A total of 63 plants were reported to be effective for ailments treatment in the local healthcare system of the study area, belonging to 56 genera and 34 families. Among families Fabaceae was the predominant by contributing 09 species.


CONCLUSIONS
Plants knowledge is not uniformly distributed among the 488 informants interviewed by mean of questionnaire.
Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
Nadeem
N
Ahmed
Lahore College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan.
Aqeel
A
Mahmood
Department of Chemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan.
Aisha
A
Ashraf
Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. Electronic address: banoasghari@gmail.com.
Asghari
A
Bano
Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, H-9, Islamabad, Pakistan.
S S
SS
Tahir
Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan.
Adeel
A
Mahmood
D000328:Adult; D020834:Ethnopharmacology; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan; D008517:Phytotherapy; D028321:Plant Preparations / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D028321:Plant Preparations
Bhawalnagar; Herbal therapy; Indigenous knowledge; Southern Punjab