Medicinal Plants of Turmic Valley (Central Karakoram National Park), Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
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Journal of Bioresource Management Volume 2 Issue 2 Article 11 Medicinal Plants of Turmic Valley (Central Karakoram National Park), Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan Sher Wali Khan Department of Biological Sciences, Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan, [email protected] Qamar Abbas Integrated Mountain Area Research Center, Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan Syed Najmul Hassan Integrated Mountain Area Research Center, Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan Hawas Khan Integrated Mountain Area Research Center, Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan Azhar Hussain Integrated Mountain Area Research Center, Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/jbm Part of the Biodiversity Commons, and the Biology Commons Recommended Citation Khan, S. W., Abbas, Q., Hassan, S. N., Khan, H., & Hussain, A. (2015). Medicinal Plants of Turmic Valley (Central Karakoram National Park), Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, Journal of Bioresource Management, 2 (2). DOI: 10.35691/JBM.5102.0025 ISSN: 2309-3854 online This Article is brought to you for free and open access by CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Bioresource Management by an authorized editor of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Medicinal Plants of Turmic Valley (Central Karakoram National Park), Gilgit- Baltistan, Pakistan © Copyrights of all the papers published in Journal of Bioresource Management are with its publisher, Center for Bioresource Research (CBR) Islamabad, Pakistan. This permits anyone to copy, redistribute, remix, transmit and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes provided the original work and source is appropriately cited. Journal of Bioresource Management does not grant you any other rights in relation to this website or the material on this website. In other words, all other rights are reserved. For the avoidance of doubt, you must not adapt, edit, change, transform, publish, republish, distribute, redistribute, broadcast, rebroadcast or show or play in public this website or the material on this website (in any form or media) without appropriately and conspicuously citing the original work and source or Journal of Bioresource Management’s prior written permission. This article is available in Journal of Bioresource Management: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/jbm/vol2/ iss2/11 Khan et al.,:Medicinal Plants Of Turmic Valley J. Bioresource Manage. (2015) 2(2): 81-90. MEDICINAL PLANTS OF TURMIC VALLEY (CENTRAL KARAKORAM NATIONAL PARK), GILGIT-BALTISTAN, PAKISTAN Sher Wali Khan1*, Qamar Abbas2, Syed Najmul Hassan2, Hawas Khan2, Azhar Hussain2 1Department of Biological Sciences, Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan. ²Integrated Mountain Area Research Center, Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan. Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This study was undertaken to enumerate the medicinal plants of the area, find out the conservation status, and record the folk knowledge from the inhabitants of Turmic Valley during 2011-2013. The valley is located in the Rondo division of the District Skardu on the Northeastern side of the Indus River. The detailed information about the local flora regarding medicinal uses was collected from the local herbal healers (Hakeems) and other knowledgeable people. Locally used herbs of the area prevent and cure the people from various diseases such as joint pains, bronchitis, flu and fever, lowering blood pressure, constipation, liver disorders, stomach and abdominal problems, etc. The most common medicinal herbs found in the region belong to the families Gentianaceae, Berberidaceae, Umbelliferae, Labiatae, Rosaceae, Compositae, Urticaceae, and Ranunculaceae. The inhabitants of the valley mostly use the 42 plant species for the treatment of different health problems. Forty-two species of plants (including 4 Gymnosperms, 1 monocotyledon, and 37 dicotyledons) and 35 types of diseases have been identified during the current study. Thymus linearis, Rosa webbiana, Urtica dioca, Pleurospermum candollei, Berberis spp., Delphinium brononianum, and Mentha angustifolia were the commonly used plant species in the valley. The collected baseline data of this study will be helpfulfor young researchers in the fieldof taxonomy, ethnobotany, pharmacology, organic chemistry, and particularly for biodiversity conservation. Over exploitation, habitat destruction, and over grazing are the major threats for the loss of the important flora of the area. Keywords: Medicinal Plants, Turmic valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, INTRODUCTION longitude (Figure 1). The population of the valley is about 2000 households.The The Rondo division is situated in the majority of the people are living in remote Karakoram Range between Gilgit and villages from 1600-5000 m, so they mostly Skardu. Although the area is mountainous, depend upon plants of their surroundings to the mountains are the main source of water fulfill their needs. The climate varies from and fodder for the livestock, and provide the place to place due to the rough topography basic necessities to the local people of the and elevation of the area. Due to great area. The Turmic valley is a beautiful valley habitat diversity and altitudinal gradients, of the Rondo division of the district Skardu the area has diverse vegetation. Plants play (Baltistan region) that lies in the an important role in curing public health and northeastern side of the River Indus about are helpful indeveloping the economy of the 100 km from Gilgit and 50 km from Skardu people. Therefore, establishment of the local city between 35.40 ° N latitude and 75.13° E names and indigenous uses of plants has 81 Khan et al.,:Medicinal Plants Of Turmic Valley J. Bioresource Manage. (2015) 2(2): 81-90. significant potential in societal benefits people have great folk knowledge about (Qamar et al., 2013; Ba˘gcı, 2000).The their flora.They used different plants to baseline data collected through solve their health problems. They mostly ethnobotanical studies is important for the used alpine plant species for the treatment of conservation and sustainable utilization of diseases like fever, flu, cough or chest the plant wealth of the area. The local problems, constipation, skin diseases, people have no documentation or record of stomach disorders, etc., but the floral the knowledge, but it is transmitted from diversity is threatened by climatic generation to generation (Lev and Amar, fluctuation and overexploitation of forest 2000).The 80% total human population of resources during the last two decades in all the world still depends upon traditional the areas of Gilgit –Baltistan (Khan and remedies (Azaizeh et al., 2003). Khatoon, 2007), resulting in some important Ethnobotany is the specific field of science plant species like Delphinium and which shows the relationship between Podophyllum becoming rare in alpine and humans and nature and provides the subalpine pastures. Therefore, the study was possibility to discover new medicines conducted to document the indigenous derived from plants (Heinrich, 2000). All knowledge and to explore the important over the world, the discovery of new medicinal plants of the area. This study is medicine has the researcher taking interest mainly focused on wild plants which are in the traditional medicines which the people collected for medical purposes by local used from various plant species from their people of the study area, and also the uses surroundings to cure different ailments and local names of these plants. The local (Ekici et al., 1998; Tuzlacı and Tolon, 2000; flora found in the area is the primary source Dogan et al., 2004; Kultur, 2008; Koyuncu of medicine for the treatment of various et al., 2009;; Tuzlacı et al., 2010; Bulut, diseases. This paper reports the first 2011; Gunes, and Ozhatay, 2011). ethnobotanical work regarding traditional medicine and their pharmaceutical Ethnobotanical studies have not been importance in the Baltistan region. In this done in the study area, although the area is paper, ethnobotanical uses of 42 medicinally rich in cultural and floral diversity and the important plant species are documented. Figure 1: Showing the Turmic Valley watershed, CKNP Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. 82 Khan et al.,:Medicinal Plants Of Turmic Valley J. Bioresource Manage. (2015) 2(2): 81-90. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was carried out during the springs of 2011-2013 from different Dicots localities and villages of the Turmic valley Gymnosperms and identified with the help of the Flora of Monocots Pakistan (Nasir and Ali, 1970-89; Ali and Nasir, 1989-1991; Ali and Qaiser, 1993- 2012).The collected specimens were properly pressed and dried in the field as well as in the Department of Biological Figure 2: The percentage of the Sciences. The collected voucher specimens group wise distribution of the plants of were properly identified with the help of available literature, and deposited in the Turmic Valley. newly established herbarium of Karakoram International University. During the field Our study reveals that the local visits, we collected the important people mostly used the Dicot flora from information about the local flora like their surroundings as compared to Monocots population size, abundance, distribution and and gymnosperms. Out of these 42 plants medicinal uses, method of uses, local names, species, only one is cultivated (Dicot) and and common threats