Medicinal and edible plants used by the Lhoba people in Medog County, Tibet, China.

Abstract

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE\nThe Lhoba people are a small, ancient, tribal ethnic group from the Himalayas and are located in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Medog County is rich in biocultural diversity. For a long time, Medog has been almost isolated from the outside world. The Lhoba people, who live in Medog, have maintained a relatively unique lifestyle and have accumulated rich traditional knowledge (TK), especially about medicinal and edible plants. Currently, there is very little documentation of the plants traditionally used by the local Lhoba communities.\n\n\nAIM OF THE STUDY\nOur investigation aimed to (i) document the species of medicinal and food plants used by the Lhoba people in Medog County, Tibet, China; (ii) screen the most important plant taxa for specific medicines, and identify the aliments treated to further contribute to drug and food supplement research; and (iii) examine whether the ethnobotanical knowledge of the Lhoba is similar among different tribes and discuss traditional uses in the health practices and livelihoods of the local communities.\n\n\nMETHODS\nEthnobotanical data were recorded through semi-structured interviews, guided field trips, and quantitative analysis. The informant consensus factor (FIC) was used as a quantitative index.\n\n\nRESULTS\nNinety-one informants (61 men and 30 women) were interviewed. A total of 75 species, including 37 medicinal plants for 14 categories of diseases and 57 edible plants from six types of food, were recorded. Among the usage types of medicinal plants, the highest FIC values were recorded for antidotes (FIC\u202f=\u202f0.98), anthelmintics (FIC\u202f=\u202f0.98), and treatments of gastrointestinal problems (FIC\u202f=\u202f0.93). The FIC values for different types of edible plants were very similar. The most frequently used medicinal and food plants in the studied communities are Zanthoxylum motuoense, Crassocephalum crepidioides, and Swertia nervosa. According to the comparative study, few differences in the use of wild plants were found. There appeared to be more overlapping species between two Lhoba tribes in Medog, named Mixingba and Miguba, with 46 (61%) common species, compared with the Bo gaer tribe in Milin, which had only two (2.7%) overlapping species. This might be due to the different geographical environments, vegetation types, and different influences of other ethnic cultures.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nThe Lhoba people in Medog County, Tibet, China, have rich TK about the uses of wild plants. However, the TK is seriously threatened due to environmental degradation and acculturation, and it showed signs of being forgotten and abandoned by the younger generation. Therefore, measures are urgently needed to document and protect the TK of the uses of the wild plant resources; and (i) the most frequently used medicinal and/or edible plants; (ii) the plants used to treat the most commonly mentioned diseases; and (iii) the endemic species that are widely used in Medog, which should be assessed for their potential future as food supplements and therapeutic products.