Descriptive study of plant resources in the context of the ethnomedicinal relevance of indigenous flora: A case study from Toli Peer National Park, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan

This paper presents the first quantitative ethnobotanical study of the flora in Toli Peer National Park of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. Being a remote area, there is a strong dependence by local people on ethnobotanical practices. Thus, we attempted to record the folk uses of the native plants of the area with a view to acknowledging and documenting the ethnobotanical knowledge. The aims of the study were to compile an inventory of the medicinal plants in the study area and to record the methods by which herbal drugs were prepared and administered.Information on the therapeutic properties of medicinal plants was collected from 64 local inhabitants and herbalists using open ended and semi-structured questionnaires over the period Aug 2013-Jul 2014. The data were recorded into a synoptic table comprising an ethnobotanical inventory of plants, the parts used, therapeutic indications and modes of application or administration. Different ethnobotanical indices i.e. relative frequencies of citation (RFC), relative importance (RI), use value (UV) and informant consensus factor (Fic), were calculated for each of the recorded medicinal plants. In addition, a correlation analysis was performed using SPSS ver. 16 to check the level of association between use value and relative frequency of citation. were the most valuable plants with the highest UV, RFC and relative importance values. The Pearson correlation coefficient between UV and RFC (0.881) reflects a significant positive correlation between the use value and relative frequency of citation. The coefficient of determination indicated that 77% of the variability in UV could be explained in terms of RFC.Systematic documentation of the medicinal plants in the Toli Peer National Park shows that the area is rich in plants with ethnomedicinal value and that the inhabitants of the area have significant knowledge about the use of such plants with herbal drugs commonly used to cure infirmities. The results of this study indicate that carrying out subsequent pharmacological and phytochemical investigations in this part of Pakistan could lead to new drug discoveries