A quantitative medico-botanical expedition of Fairy Meadows National Park, Diamir, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the ethnobotanical knowledge of the population of the Fairy Meadow National Park, Diamir, Gilgit Baltistan. The study area was previously ignored due to physical barriers, remoteness and religious extremism. The use of medicinal plants for various maladies, known to the elders of the community and passed orally to the younger generation was documented. A total of 146 informants were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires. The data was quantitatively analyzed employing frequency of citation (FC), use value (UV), relative frequency of citation (RFC) along with Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC). A total of 90 plants species belonging to 77 genera and 49 different families have been documented. These medicinal plants were used against 55 diseases, especially stomach problems (23.3%), cough (17.7%), asthma and fever (16.6%). For 31 out of 90 plants species which had been reported either, new uses (28 plants) or new use-report (3 plants) were found. New reported medicinal plants include Allium gilgitensis, Astragalus gilgitensis and Pedicularia flava. The majority of the documented plants were wild collected (86%), herbs (60%), and leaves were the most widely used part (27%). The common method of preparation was powder (27%) mainly administered orally (81.7%). The highest use values were found for Berberis lyceum (5.47), Thymus lineari s(5.07) and Rhododendron anthopogon (5.0), while the plants with greater relative frequency of citation were Berberis lyceum (0.97), Thymus linearis (0.89) and Rhododendron anthopogon (0.75). The Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.836 between RFC and UV showing high positive association. This study was an extension to the ethnobotanical work done in Pakistan previously. We documented a wealth of traditional knowledge, and could record the uses of various species for the first time from Pakistan. The new use reports and new plants reported supplement the foundation of pharmacology and new drug development for complex and challenging disease.