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Ethnobotany in Pakistan

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Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures

Ethnobotany is a very broad discipline and covers all types of human-plant interactions. It is the study of how the people of a particular culture and region make use of plants. However, there are also other definitions, such as the use of plants in early societies. According to Heinrich and Bremner (2006), ethnobotany investigates the relationship between humans and plants in all its complexity and is usually based on a detailed observation and study of the plants used by a society, including all its cultural beliefs and practices associated with that use. In Pakistan the field of ethnomedicine is quite virgin. The indigenous use of plants is a common practice, but ethnobotanical studies are still on a documenting level (Shinwari, 2010). Ethnobotanical studies generally identify locally important plant species and document traditional knowledge for the discovery of crude drugs and modern-day drugs. Medicinal plant products have been used successfully for various ailments both...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Islamabad, Pakistan

    Zabta K. Shinwari

  2. Pakistan Academy of Sciences, G-5/2, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Anwar Nasim

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  1. Zabta K. Shinwari
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  2. Anwar Nasim
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Correspondence to Zabta K. Shinwari .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    Helaine Selin

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Shinwari, Z.K., Nasim, A. (2014). Ethnobotany in Pakistan. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_9620-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_9620-2

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