Ethnobotany as a Science of Preserving Traditional Knowledge: Traditional Uses of Wild Medicinal Plants from District Reasi, J&K (Northwestern Himalaya), India

Abstract

Investigating traditional knowledge is a science of preserving age-old practices, and now new drugs and nutraceutical products are formulated based on traditional inventory. From 2017 to 2019, an ethnobotanical documentation of the plants growing in district Reasi (a part of Jammu Himalaya) was carried out to collect information regarding different usages of the plant species growing in the region through questionnaire and interviews. Floristically, a total of 90 species belonging to 80 genera and 48 families were investigated to be used as economic plants for medicine, food, herbal tea, fire and tanning purposes. The species distribution patterns across the families were unequal, with half of the species contributed by 12 families, 5 families with 2–3 members, and 31 families were monotypic. In terms of the functional trait diversity, herbaceous and perennial woody forms were dominant over the other forms. Out of 90 plant species, 10% were used as single usage, 27% double usage and 63% multi-usage. PAST software, a multivariate ecological community analysis software, was used to find the relationship between ethnobotanical usage and plant species. Four plant usages (clusters) were determined at a vertical distance value of 0.5, where the clusters are distinctly separated. The present study will provide a baseline data for the future researchers, policymakers, common public, land managers and other stakeholders to develop scientifically informed strategies for conservation of natural resources and sustainable use of plant diversity in hotspot regions like Himalayas and other similar biodiversity-rich sites elsewhere in the world.