Traditional knowledge of wild medicinal plants used by the inhabitants of Garam Chashma valley, district Chitral, Pakistan

Garam Chashma valley is a mountainous valley situated in the Hindukush mountain range in Pakistan. This area is blessed with rich and diverse medicinal flora extensively utilized by the local community to cure health issues. The present article aims to explore and document the indigenous traditional knowledge about wild plants and their curative properties. This survey was carried out during April 2018 to September 2019. Data was collected from 153 indigenous people through semi structure questionnaire, group discussion, field survey and formal talks with elder people. Quantitative analysis of recorded data was obtained by applying quantitative indices like Frequency of Citation (FC) Use Reports (UR), Family Use Value (FUV), Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), Use Value (UV) and Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC). About 83 plant taxa belonging to 36 different families were recorded for the treatment of 95 different disorders grouped into sixteen disease categories. Herbs were the most leading plant habit (81.9%) and dried plant material (51.8%) usually preferred for therapeutics uses. Among families Asteraceae (16.86%) was recorded as major taxon with highest number of species followed by Lamiaceae (12.06%). Leaves 33% were recorded most abundantly used plant part followed by flowers (17%). Regarding to formulations, decoction (39.3%) and powder (17.1%) were recorded most frequent mode of preparation while oral intake (78%) was most preferred administration route. About (40%) plants species were utilized to treat Gas-trointestinal diseases (GIT) disorders. Informant consensus revealed that Gastrointestinal disorders and Derma-tological disorders were top ranked ailments categories with 0.94 consensus. The current study imparted that medicinal plants are still used by the indigenous communities of Garam Chashma valley, district lower Chitral, Pakistan. Thus, this investigation provides basis for the conservation of medicinal flora in the area. Medicinal plants (MPs) having high value of FC, RFC, UV, FUV, FL and ICF should be further study for phytochemistry and ethnopharmacology to evaluate novel active ingredients for new drugs discovery.(c) 2020 Ecological Society of China. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.