An ethnomedicinal survey of indigenous knowledge on medicinal plants and their current marketing in the kakar region of balochistan pakistan

This study aimed to document indigenous knowledge about the utilization of medicinal plants for various illnesses in the North-Eastern part of the Kakar region of Balochistan province. The ethnomedicinal documentation contains quantitative and qualitative information on medicinal plant diversity with aimed to develop current marketing for medicinal plants being traded in the province of indigenous and imported plants. The data was collected by semi-structured interviews, rapid appraisal approach and open ended questionnaire. The results were analyzed using quantitative indices including Information Consensus Factor (ICF), Fidelity level (FL), use value (UV), Frequency Citation (FC) and Relative Frequency Citation (RFC). A total of 60 plant species belonging to 20 families were observed being used as ethnomedicinal remedies by local inhabitants. The medicinal use of Asteraceaea plants and Lamiaceae plants families were reported to be dominant with 10 species each. Whole plant was used most frequently (30%) by indigenous inhabitants. Medicinal species uses against treatment of almost 15 categories of very commons disorders. The most common plants were identified of genus Artemisia (six species). Besides this, the genus Pulicaria was used by most informants for typhoid and malarial diseases. Lamiaceae was also an important family in this region with Seriphidum quettense was highly medicinal species commonly used by a majority in the native community. The reported medicinal species were mostly herbs (80%) followed by shrubs and trees (10% each). Gastrointestinal problems were most commonly treated with the highest number of different species (19). The number of medicinal plants documented in this study represents evidence of high diversity that will continue to play an important role in healthcare system. The inhabitants of Kakar range use plants with medicinal properties for curing of various diseases due to shortage of medical facilities and unaffordable prices of pharmaceutical drugs. (author)