Quantitative Ethnomedicinal Survey Of Shrubby Plants, Used By The Local Communities Of District Lahore (Punjab), Pakistan

BackgroundIndigenous knowledge of medicinal flora is a baseline for the production of plant based commercial drugs. Current study was planned to explore the ethnomedicinal uses of shrubs in traditional health-care system of District Lahore. This study also aimed to represent the conservation status of these natural resources which are decreasing day by day due to their overexploitation and deforestation. MethodsThe key informants were identified by employing the snowball technique. Data was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with 103 informants from different localities (herbal markets, nurseries, gardens) of district Lahore. Collected data about medicinal shrubs were analysed on different data analyses parameters such as relative frequency of citation (RFC), use value (UV), informant consensus factor (ICF), fidelity level (FL) and relative importance (RI). In addition, SPSS 22 software was used for statistics analysis and interpretation of associations among different studied parameters. ResultsA total of 115 ethnomedicinal shrubs belonging to 50 families were reported to be used against different diseases. The study area was dominated by Fabaceae family (n=10). The RFC ranged from 0.02 (Deutzia scabra and Euonymus japonicus) to 0.85 (Rosa indica) while UV ranged from 0.01 (Cestrum diurnum and Garcinia aristata) to 0.23 (Jasminum grandiflorum and Hamelia patens) and RI ranged from 0.16 (Garcinia aristata) to 43.73 (Tabernaemontana divaricata). Moreover Lawsonia inermis, Piper nigrum, Punica granatum, Rosa indica and Vitis vinifera reported with 100% FL whereas maximum ICF were calculated by gastrointestinal diseases i.e., 0.45. On the basis of cluster analysis ethnomedicinal shrubs were categorized into two groups i.e., high valued and low valued. It was also found that most of the species in high valued group (n=29) were rare in study area due to their over exploitation. This study also documented 104 new use reports for ethnomedicinal shrubs. ConclusionsThis study documented significant indigenous knowledge about ethnomedicinal shrubs used by the local people of District Lahore. This knowledge could be worthwhile in discovering and developing new plant-based drugs. Apart from this, current study also revealed that most valuable medicinal species are declining in their number due to over usage and mismanagement. Conservation strategies for medicinal plants of District Lahore are highly recommended.