Medicinal plants and their traditional uses in Thana Village, District Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Background: Local herbalists share valuable contribution in usages of plants for different medicinal purposes. The field of ethnobotany plays a key role for modern medicines. Due to the rapid advancement of medical sciences, the use of plant species in traditional ways is getting declining. Documentation of such knowledge was much more necessary for awareness of the local community. Current research was conducted in the village Thana, district Malakand. Methodology: An ethnobotanical survey was conducted through an open-ended and semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire collected information about plant species, its therapeutic uses and data about the customary values of these species. Mostly people belonging to rural areas and of more than 40 years of age were interviewed due to their vast experience and knowledge. Several informants were interviewed to confirm information regarding the uses of each plant species. These plants were taken to the local hakims and pansaris additionally. In the majority of cases, single plant species were found to be used in several ways and therefore can be said having numerous roles. Results: On the basis of collected data a total of 50 plant species were documented in the area which plays a key role in improving the health and wealth of local inhabitants. Lamiaceae is being ranked on the top as it contributes number to collected species. Out of 50 plant species,46 species were recorded best for medicinal purposes, 10 plant species were found good as fodder, 4 species for ornamental purposes, 14as food and vegetable, 12 as firewood, 8 for furniture and hedges purposes, 3 species were documented as poisonous and 4 species were found to be utilized for ornamental purpose. Conclusion: The study area is found rich in terms of floral diversity. Local inhabitants of the area use the plant species in traditional ways for the curving of different diseases since early times. Due to anthropogenic pressure and natural disasters flora of the area facing huge pressure of extinction.


Introduction
The ethnobotanical information besides listing the traditional uses of plants, helps ecologists, pharmacologists, taxonomists, watershed and wildlife managers in their efforts for improving the wealth of area 1 . These plants are being utilized since early ages by local communities 2&3 as a food, fodder, source of drugs, hunting material, for clothing in local traditions and a remedy for a number of diseases since time immemoria 4 . Till now 53,000 different plants species are recorded using for medicinal purposes in a number of ways 5 . It is supposed that the trade of therapeutic plant species will touch the figure of 5 trillion dollars (US) by 2050 6&7 . Apart from medicinal uses, plants also playing a key role in upholding the economic status of the local people 8&9 . Almost 80% of the people across the globe working on the medicinal flora for their ultimate fitness care, because of easy accessibility and having negligible adverse effects as the other pharmaceuticals have 10 . A significant number of traditionally used plants are now facing threats of extinction due to anthropogenic and natural exposures 11 .
Pakistan is broadly divided into 9 ecological regions with about 6000 plant species 12 . About 10 to 12 % of these are used for medicinal purposes 6 . According to Hocking in 1958, including a good number of villagers (84%) of the Pakistani population are practicing from experts of traditional drugs till date 13 , due to either lack of proper health facilities 14 , or experience of elders of several decades 15 . Field of ethnobotany holding strength in Pakistan with time as a significant amount of work has been observed in different areas of the country 1, 2, [16][17][18][19][20] . Literature review shows that previously no such study was carried in the studied area. The knowledge of traditional uses was passed from generation to generation through practices. Current work is the first attempt to document the valuable information about the usages of plants by inhabitants of the area.
The main aim of the present study was to document the medicinal plants of the area, which are being consumed by the people of the study area for centuries. One of the objectives was to increase awareness in the local community about the consumption of the plants for medicinal purposes. It was also under consideration to deliver knowledge to the inhabitants of the area about the economic values of certain plant species.

Methodology
An ethnobotanical survey was conducted in May 2016 till the end of July 2016 in different areas like that having lack of basic health facilities were given preference for the sampling. A questionnaire consisting of three different portions was used for data collection regarding the therapeutically vital plant species. Portion "A" of the questionnaire was about the informants, portion "B" consisted of the general data about the plant species, while the portion "C" incorporated data about the restorative employments of the floral species. In the current survey, data's about the local names, part utilized for remedies, use, showcasing, dispersion, accessibility, wealth and way the part is utilized for diseases.
Individuals having age more than 40 years were given preference during the sampling because of their practical experience about the usages of local flora. Documented flora was brought to the nearby herbalists (natural specialists) and pansaris (conventional business people) for further verification of their uses. The business people were interviewed and information about the marketing of the plant species was recorded. Collected data were then analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 32B and AMOS version 21.0 32B. To make the study easier specific keys were used (as given below) for the parts of the plant species utilized for restorative purposes.

Study area and its climatic conditions
The study area is Thana village, District Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The latitude and longitude of Thana are 34.630922 and 72.076444 respectively. Thana village is bounded by Dir lower on the north, by Swat at East and by Bunair in the south. District Malakand is characterized by uneven terrain and vales with elevation ranging from 700-898 m 21 . Among all ecological zones of Pakistan, Malakand district is considered to be the hub to vegetation that lies in the Sino-Japanese phytogeographical region of the world 22 . Different areas of Malakand possess homogenous climate.
However, climatic data of the study were obtained from meteorological stations Swat area shown in. January was found the coldest month among the others. February was known for significant precipitation. June was documented in the hottest month for the study area.

Plant Habit
In the present work, it was reported that the studied area consisted of diverse vegetation having valuable medicinally significant plant species. A total of 52 plant species were documented in the present work.

Figure 1: Plants of different habitats
Out of the total, 62% of the recorded species were herbs. Trees comprising 25% of the total documented species, while shrubs added the least (13 %) to the total.

Ethnobotanical survey
Keeping in view, the aim of consumption the documented plant species were pooled into different groups. The groups were designed as, for Medicines (46 spp), as a fodder (10 spp), for ornamental purposes (4 spp), as food and vegetable (14 spp), for fuelwood (12 spp), for furniture thatching and hedges (8 spp) and Poisonous (3spp) ( Figure 2). A total of 17 plant species were used locally for the treatment of digestive disorders such as stomach ache, diarrhea, constipation, dysentery and as purgative. The results also disclosed that some of the plant's species are used for respiratory tract related ailments such as cough throat pain. Among them, 4 species for the treatment of jaundice and hepatitis.

Families of ethnobotanical importance
Recorded medicinal plant species belonged to 34 different families. Out of these families, 10 were considered dominant as they share number in comparison to others.

Figure 3: Plants belonging to different families
Family Lamiaceae occupy the topmost rank by adding 21% of the recorded species followed by Papilionaceae i.e. 12%. Moraceae and Leguminosae comprising (9%) each. Other eight families added 6% each to the total as shown in Figure 3.
Economic aspects of the species A significant portion of the documented plant species are wild and naturally growing, while few species, particularly trees are cultivated for traditional as well as other purposes. The life system of the people of village Thana mostly depending on agriculture that's why they generally cultivate crops like wheat, maize, rice, onion, sweet pea, peaches, apricot etc. Onion is considered to be the most important crop of this area cultivated by the local farmers each year. Moreover, it is a great source of income for the farmers and is exported from the local vegetable market to all over the country. In addition, peach and apple are also important crops that are exported to all over the country.  The fruits are edible and used as a carminative. The young shoot is boiled with Adiantum venustum and is used as a tonic for curing sexual disability (aphrodisiac). It is also used for making hedge around fields.
International Journal of Endorsing Health Science Research ©Int. j. endorsing health sci. res.

Discussion
The use of plants or their products by the traditional way are common practice from decades 21 . Ethnobotany is possibly the most imperative way to study plants as natural property and their supervision by native peoples. It allows us to spent time with native inhabitants to investigate information based on the experience of a number of years 22 . Unluckily, there are no terms and regulation for the protection of awareness of local peoples 5 . Herbal medicines even today play a vital part in far and sided areas and numbers of natively produced medicines are used as domestic ailments for numerous diseases especially in these areas 19  Moreover, endophytic bacteria found in the medicinal plants have also been reported to be useful for agriculture as biofertizer 27&28 . In a case, 75 endophytic bacteria were isolated from a medicinal plant Olea ferruginea and used a biocontrol and biofertilizers 28 . It suggests that medicinal plants of an area are not only important for the cure of a disease but it also boosts the economy of that area, as it is using as fodder, ornamental, food, fuelwood and furniture ( Figure 2). These results indicated that medicinal plants are not only used as medicine but it can also be used for other important aspects. However, lack of knowledge for growth, collection and utilization of aromatic plants is the key issue, which comprises of the absence of clear resources, little understanding of defensible supervising restriction of data and sell necessities 6 . From the number of years, the local inhabitant have used the medicinal plant for curing of different diseases. Through personal experience and familial training and extended service, the native inhabitants are familiar with the useful flora and extraction of medicines. For the improvement and preservation of this valuable flora suggested so as to the neighbouring people must be well-informed relating to the significance of modern harvesting techniques.

Conclusion
It was concluded that the majority of the local inhabitants in the study area are illiterate and needs to be trained about the medicinal plants on the scientific basis for harvesting and preservation. A number of plant species are used for various ailments in the study area. However, there is a need to manage these medicinally important species on a sustainable basis. There is an urgent need for more detailed analysis of the economic value and cultural practices associated with the collected species.

Conflicts of Interest
None.