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Ethnobotanical evaluation
of some plant resources in Northern part of Pakistan
Hassan Sher1* and Farrukh Hussain2
1Department
of Botany, G. P. Graduate Jahanzeb College Swat, Pakistan.
2Department
of Botany, University of Peshawar, Pakistan.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
hassansher_2000@yahoo.com
Accepted 4
May, 2007 |
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An ethnobotanical study on the medicinal and economic plants
of Malam Jabba valley, District Swat was conducted with the
aims of documenting the inventory of medicinal plants,
examinining the current status of the medicinal plants trade
and investigating the linkages in the market chain starting
from collectors to consumers. The survey reported 50 species
of plants belonging to 33 families as ethnobotanically
important. These species are used as drugs for treating
diseases in traditional system of medicine. The detailed
local uses, recipe preparation along with their local names
and diseases treated were recorded for each species. Market
survey revealed that the structure of medicinal plant trade
is complex and heterogeneous, involving many players. The
collectors are often not aware of the high market prices and
medicinal values, and most of the collected material is sold
to local middlemen at a very low price. There was an
increase of 3 to 5 folds in prices from collectors to the
national market. Training in sustainable harvesting and post
harvesting of wild medicinal plant resource, trade
monitoring, equitable sharing of benefits of wild resources,
improved control on harvesting and trade for the
conservation of resources, enhancement of cultivation
efforts, future research into trade in wild harvested
plants, community participation in natural resource
management and value addition in the herbal products to
maximize the benefits are recommended.
Key
words:
Malam Jabba Valley, Sustainable harvesting, plant resources. |
