Ethnobotanical Leaflets 10: 63-71. 2006.

Check List of Medicinal Plants of Siran Valley Mansehra-Pakistan

Ghulam Mujtaba Shah And Mir Ajab Khan*

Department of Botany, Govt Post Graduate College, Abbottabad 

*Department Of Plants Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad-Pakistan

Issued 27 February 2006

ABSTRACT

This study was carried in Siran Valley district Mansehra. (Pakistan). The method adopted for documentation of indigenous knowledge was based on questionnaire consisting of semi-structured interviews employing a checklist of questions and direct observations. The aim of the study was to collect indigenous knowledge of local inhabitants about the use of native plants, which were being utilized by the people for the treatment of different diseases. The ethnomedicinal uses of 80 plant species belonging to 49 families were recorded during field trips from the research area. The cultivated medicinal plants consists of 21 species. The check list and ethnomedicinal inventory was developed alphabetically by botanical name, followed by local name, family, part used and ethnomedicinal uses. Plant specimens were collected, identified, preserved, mounted and voucher was deposited in the Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad for future references.

Key words: Medicinal plants, ethnomedicinal uses, Siran Valley-Pakistan.

INTRODUCTION

The study area is located in the Hazara Civil Division of the North West Frontier Province, (NWFP), Pakistan. Mansehra district was formed on 1st of October 1976. It consists of three tehsils viz. Balakot, Mansehra and Oghi. Mansehra district is located between 34⁰-15^/ to 35⁰-12^/ North latitudes and 72⁰50^/ to 74⁰-07^/ East longitudes. Total area of the district is 5957 Sq km. The Siran River catchments area is commonly known as, Siran Valley. It is situated between 34^o 33^/ 35^// and 34^o 44^/ 30^// North latitude, and between 73^o 13^/ 38^// and 73^o 22^/ 40^// East longitude. The tract is bounded on the north by Allai Valley, on the south by Lower Siran, on the west by the Konsh Valley and on the east by the Kaghan Valley. The Siran River is 130 km in length joining the Indus at Tarbala in Hazara Division. The total area of the tract is 5284.2 km. The climate of the tract is moist temperate with very marked seasonal periods of snow, rain and drought. Snowfall is considerable and occurs any time from later half of November to the end of March. Snow often remains to the end of May. Most of the rain occurs during monsoon viz. July- August between these two seasons of snow and rain, the Spring and Autumn months are periods of less rain and drought.

According to standard classification of forest types of Pakistan (Champion, Seth and Khattak 1965) the forests fall under the major type Montane temperate forests a very small part of these forest also fall under group 8 viz. These forests are predominately coniferous with some broad-leaved species. Chir (Pinus roxburghii) forests form transitional stage between the Montane temperate and Dry tropical vegetation around about the elevation of 763 and 1830 m. Chir covers small area and is confined to lower limits .On upper limits Chir pine is mixed with blue pine (Pinus wallichiana.) The dominating species are few forming pure or mixed associations. The occurrence of species depends upon the aspect, altitude and local habitat conditions. Abies pindrow in northern aspects or moist slopes, Pinus wallichiana with Taxus wallichiana as an understorey and occasional Cedrus deodara on dryer hotter slopes. Broadleaved trees include Aesculus indica, Ulmus wallichiana, Juglans regia, Quercus floribunda, Acer caesium A. stercuuliaceum and Prunus cornuta the shrub layer comprises Vibernum grandiflorum, Berberis lycium, B. ceratophylla, Rosa brunonii, Skimmia laureola and Lonicera webbiana. Herbs include many species of Impatiens and Euphorbia as well as Viola, Fragaria and Gentiana. Climbers include Hedera nepalensis, Clematis grata and Clematis montana. At lower elevations shrubs like Punica granatum, Nerium oleander., Vitex negund., Colebrookea oppositifolia., Debregeasia salicifolia., Otostegia limbata., Dodonaea viscosa., Justicia adhatoda ., Jasminum sp., Sageretia brandrithiana., Rumex hastatus., Mallotus philippensis., Indigofera gerardiana., Woodfordia fruticosa and Rosa sp. are fairly common. The herbaceous flora is represented by Verbascum thapsus., Fumaria indica , Solanum sp. Salvia moorcroftiana., Senecio sp., Inula cappa., etc. Spring flora like Colchicum luteum, Tulipa stellata, Gagea lutea, Medicago sativa., Lathyrus sp. Crotalaria madicaginea., Capsella bursa-pastoris., Lamium amplexicaule., Viola odorata, Galium aparine., Dicliptera roxburghiana., Oenothera rosea., Oxalis corniculata., Bupleurum sp., Ajuga bracteosa., Evolvulus alsinoides., Chenopodium album and Macromere sp. are common.

The herbal medicines occupy distinct position right from the primitive period to present day. The ethnobotanical pharmacology is as old as man himself. In Indo-Pak first record of plant medicine were compiled in Rig Veda between 4500-1600 BC and Ayurveda between 2500-600 BC. This system traces its origin to Greek medicine, which was adopted by Arabs and then spread to India and Europe. About 80% population of the world depends on the traditional system of health care (Ahmad 1999). These medicines have less side effects and man can get it easily from nature. Unani system is dominant in Pakistan but the ethno medicinal plants use is also seen in the remote areas. (William 2002).

The indigenous traditional knowledge of herbal plants of communities where it has been transmitted orally for many years is fast disappearing from the face of world due to transformation of traditional culture. The people, who are native to the area in which the plants occur, use around 90% of the medicinal species. This is indicative of the vast repository of knowledge of plant medicine that is still available for global use, provided of course that it does not get lost before it can be tapped or documented. Traditional and indigenous medical knowledge of plants, both oral and codified, are undoubtedly eroding. Keeping in view the importance of medicinal flora of Siran Valley, the study was confined to collect and document the indigenous knowledge of local people about medicinal uses of native plants .The present study was aimed to document the traditional knowledge of Siran Valley.

METHODS AND MATERIAL

Plant Collection and Preservation

Frequent field trips in different seasons were arranged in order to collect information about the ethnomedicinal uses of plants by the local people from January 2001 to January 2003. The main target sites in Siran Valley were Baffa, Shinkiari, Banda Piran, Dhodial, Dadar, Jabori, Jacha, Mandagucha, Panjul, Kund Bungla, Shaheed Pani, Khori, Bakki, Jabbar and Musa- Ka-Musallah. Plant specimens were collected, pressed, dried, preserved, mounted and identified through the available literature (Nasir & Ali, 1971- 2001). The specimens were deposited in the Herbarium, Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid -i-Azam University Islamabad Pakistan (ISL). The data taken in the field was transferred to the slip pasted on the herbarium sheets. The plants were identified with the help of taxonomic literature, manuals and floras. Stereomicroscope was used for critical examination of the material.

Survey of Traditional Knowledge

Questionnaire method was adopted for documentation of folk indigenous knowledge .The interviews were carried out in local community, to investigate local people and knowledgeable persons (Hakims, Women and Herdsmen) who are the main user of medicinal plants About 200 informants have been interviewed on random basis. A female student was involved to interview the women community of the area. First of all, the focal area; Siran Valley has been surveyed. The indigenous medicinal plants having traditional knowledge of utilization among the people have been selected as reference specimens. The traditional knowledge about the indigenous medicinal plants has been checked from other sites (Jabori, Hilkot, Jacha, Mandagucha and Shaheedpani)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data on ethnomedicinal of 80 plant species belonging to 49 families, different season were collected. Information regarding their botanical name, vernacular name, family, part used and their ethnomedicinal uses are listed in the Check List (Table.1). The cultivated medicinal have also been reported. (Table 2).

  Herbal medicine, there pharmacognostic characterization and their rational uses are actually the cultural assets lying viable and remained preserved in the remote cut off areas like Siran Valley. Pakistan has a diverse flora containing about 6000 species of phanerogams. Estimates indicate that around 700 plant species are used as medicinal and aromatic plants (Pei, 1992). In Pakistan 80% of the people belonging to the rural areas still depends upon the herbal medicines (Anonymous, 1997) In the recent years, more efforts have been made to document the traditional knowledge .In this regard traditional utilization of 160 plants have been described, collecting the knowledge form Margalla Hills National Park. The conservation status has also been discussed (Shinwari & Khan, 2000). About 58 species of medicinal plants have been preliminary listed from Ayubia National Park-Galliat (Shah, 2001). Indigenous knowledge of about 25 medicinal herbs from Kahuta-Rawalpindi district has been reported (Qureishi and Khan, 2001). Similarly traditional uses of about 77 species have been recorded from Shogran valley, Mansehra (Matin et al., 2001). Ethnobotanical importance of about 48 species has been documented from Kaghan valley, Mansehra (Shinwari et al., 1996).

The people of the Valley are entirely rural and mostly poverty-sticken, undernourished and illiterate. The have to cut forests to sell as timber and fuel wood. As a result forests of Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara, Juglans regia, Pinus roxburgii, Pinus wallichiana, Picea smithiana and Taxus wallichiana are disappearing at an alarming rate. Fraxinus excelsior Sum was a valuable broad leaved tree of the forests of Siran Valley but due to heavy exploitation of this tree for furniture, today it is found only in some graveyards or road side plantations near Govt. Post Graduate college Mansehra. No big tree has been found in the forests. Forest department should reintroduce this tree. A number of medicinal plants like Podophyllum emodi, Paeonia emodi, Skimmia laureola and Bergenia ciliata are on the verge of extinction due to over exploitation. The conservation programme can protect the medicinal plants by help of local people Regeneration of plants is also badly affected due to heavy grazing. The local people and researcher face the challenging task of not only recording knowledge of plants, but also applying the results of their studies to biodiversity conservation and community development. (Ahmad et al., 2003). Most of the species are under severe pressure due to their extensive uses in many fields. The community people collect these plants with an unmechanized method and sell them in the local markets. The forests belong to community, as a result there is no check to conserve and protect the forest and the precious plant resources. The area is highly disturbed and degraded due to biotic factors. Man is the prime source in removing the vegetation for fuel wood and the degradation of vegetation through slashing and burning particularly at higher elevation. However, sustainable use of plant resources is required in the area, as ruthless use of these plant resources will result in the loss of valuable flora and fauna. If the interferences could some how, be controlled, the local vegetation will definitely take a turn toward improvement.

Table 1. Medicinal Plants of Siran Valley.

Key: b=bark, fl=flowers, fr=fruits, g=gum, L=leave, lt=latex, r=roots, rb=root bark, rh=rhizome, sd=seeds, tu=tuber, w=whole plant, wd=wood.

Table 2. Cultivated medicinal plants.

REFERENCES

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Ahmed, H. 2003. Cultivation and sustainable harvesting of medicinal and aromatic plants through community involvement. Intern.Workshop on conservation and sustainable use of medicinal and aromatic plants in Pakistan. WWF, MINFAL and Qarshi industries Pvt. Ltd P.

Ahmad, H. 1999. Issues Regarding Medicinal Plants of Pakistan. Udyana Today, 6(3): 6-7.

Anonymous. 1997. Herbal medicines. The Network 6 (3): 1-2.

Champion, H.G. Seth. S.K. and Khattak, G.M .1965. Forest Types of Pakistan. Pakistan Forest Institute Peshawar.pp-238.

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