An ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used by Gujjar Community of Trikuta Hills in Jammu and Kashmir , India

Plants are integral source of medicine in the rural areas, particularly in the tribal communities. An ethnobotanical survey on the medicinal plants used by the Gujjar community of the Trikuta hills, one of the least explored areas of the Jammu and Kashmir state of India, was undertaken. Information on the medicinal plants was mainly gathered from local people and traditional healers through questionnaires, and formal and informal discussions by undertaking frequent field trips. Seventy plants belonging to 43 different taxonomic families were recoded in the study area. Majority of the plants were herbs, though trees, shrubs, climbers and some epiphytes were also found. Leaves were ranked as the commonest part being used followed by roots and whole plants. More than one plant part was in use for the cure of different ailments. Most of these plants were used as decoctions, pastes, herbal teas or tonics and administered orally. Some of the plants encountered in the study area were rare and endangered thus inviting the attention for their conservation and preservation.


INTRODUCTION
Plants have served as the basis of traditional medicine system for thousands of years in countries such as China and India (Gurib-Fakim, 2006).These plant based systems continue to play an essential role in health care medicines.The development of clinically effective anticancer agents such as taxol (from Taxus brevifolia) and the discovery of potential anti AIDS agent such as michellamine B (an alkaloid from woody vine, Ancistrocladus species) and calanolide A (from Calophyllum teysmanii) demonstrate the value of plants as source of potential new drugs and highlight the importance of conserving these valuable resources (Gurib-Fakim, 2006).There is also a renewal of interest in the natural plant products as these are biologically more compatible with the system and have little toxicological concerns.As per World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 80% of the world inhabitants, especially living in the rural areas of developing countries, rely mainly on traditional medicines for their primary health care (WHO, 2003).There are several areas world over where a vast knowledge on the use of plants against different illnesses exists.In fact, medicinal plants and their traditional uses have been an integral part of social, cultural, religious aspect of ancient civilization (Folke, 2004).Plants have been the basis of traditional medicinal systems including Ayurvedic, Unani and Chinese.Unfortunately, due to scarcity of written documents, relative low income and lack of interest of younger generations, the traditional knowledge on medicinal plants is highly threatened and fast eroding (Huntingto, 2000).Of late, rediscovery of traditional knowledge about medicinal plant usage by local communities has been viewed as an important tool for natural resource management (DeWalt, 1994).The importance of local people and traditional knowledge in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management has been well recognized by the international agencies, organizations and conventions such as Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) (Cormier-Salem and Roussel, 2002).Efforts are, therefore, required for assessing and documenting such knowledge and methods of utilizing these resources (Cunningham, 2001).
India has rich plant diversity and is one among the mega biodiversity countries of the world.Indians have been using medicinal plants since antiquity and the Ayurvedic methods date back to 5000 B.C (Kapoor, 1990).However, due to rapid industrialization and urbanisation, the knowledge has now been restricted to a few elderly people in the rural /tribal areas, who largely remain delinked from those in the urban areas.In order to bridge this gap, documentation and investigation on the medicinal uses of the plants by the rural people/tribes living in the remote areas is required.
Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of India, has a rich repository of biodiversity including a diverse variety of medicinal plants (Dar et al., 2002).Previous studies have documented ethnobotanical information from Kashmir-Jhelum (Naqshi et al., 1992), Shopian (Tantray et al., 2009), Guries Valley (Ara and Naqshi, 1992), Kashmir valley (Dar et al., 1984), and Ladakh (Bhattacharyya, 1991), and Poonch valley (Khan et al., 2011).However, Trikuta hills in the Jammu region and inhabited by Gujjars are largely unexplored.Since Gujjars are shepherd by occupation, they keep on shifting from one place to another and mostly stay in the upper reaches of hills.Due to nomadic life style and remote area, primary health services are very low.Additionally, being illiterate, they believe more in traditional healing practices and have strong faith in them.However, studies documenting the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants used by Gujjars in this region are lacking.We therefore conducted a study to document and assess knowledge on the medicinal plants used by the Gujjar community of the Trikuta hills.

Description of the study site
Trikuta hills (Map shown in Figure 1) lie between 32° 59′ and 33° 10′ N latitude and 74° 55′ and 75° 50′ E longitude and the altitude ranging from 360 m (at Bhabber of Katra) to 3000 m (at the top of Trikuta ridge).Climate is extremely cold in the months of December to February; temperature rises abruptly towards the end of April and remains hot till end of July.The region receives snowfall in the month of January in the area situated above 2000 m.The flora of this state is diverse (ranging from sub-tropical to temperate) due to its unique location and diverse climatic conditions.

Methods of data collection
Ethnomedicinal data were collected between August, 2009 and April, 2011.The information was obtained through semi-structured questionnaires and interviews with key informants like local residents, health workers, renowned herbalists, etc., and through.Semi-structured questionnaires consist of closed and open questions, helps to accommodate responses from different groups, and get both qualitative and quantitative responses.The questionnaire /interview focussed mainly on the local names of the plants, plant part used and the ailment being cured, and the preparation and use of medicinal plants.The specimens of the ethnomedicinal plants were collected, identified, dried and a voucher specimen have been deposited at the Herbarium, Panjab University (PAN), Chandigarh, India.In all, information was collected from 25 persons (20 men and 5 women in the age group of 45 to 75 years).In one day, nearly 2 h were spent with one informant to gather the information and three informants were interviewed.Regular field visits were undertaken to the study area to get information on the uses of medicinal plants from various sections of the community and validate the gathered information (Figure 4).The reliability of the gathered information was confirmed by visiting and interviewing the informant thrice.

RESULTS
The present study documented 70 plant species belonging to 43 families that have been used for medicinal purposes by the Gujjars in Trikuta hills.These have been arranged alphabetically and the information has been provided about their botanical name, family, local and English name, plant part used, and the method of administration (Table 1).These plants grow in a variety of habitats such as forest areas, open grasslands, fields, and rocky areas on the hills, etc.Of the documented plants, 11% (8 species) belonged to family Asteraceae, 9% (6 species) to Lamiaceae, and 9% (6 species) to Fabaceae with.In addition, three species each belonged to family Liliaceae, Polygonaceae and Solanaceae.Families Rubiaceae, Menispermaceae, Fagaceae, Malvaceae and Verbenaceae were represented with two species each (Figure 1).Among the identified medicinal plants, 33 were herbs (~47%), 13 each were shrubs and trees (~19%), 9 (~13%) were climbers and 2 were epiphytes (~3%) (Table 1, Figure 2).
Plants of Trikuta used by the Gujjars cure a number of diseases including rheumatism, skin problems, and respiratory and reproductive disorders.Species of Celastrus, Urtica, Hedera, Verbena, Dioscorea, and Saussurea are used for the treatment of rheumatism, whereas those of Bombax, Asparagus, Rubia, Dioscorea and Verbena are used against sexual and reproductive disorders.
Different parts of the plants were used for the treatment of various ailments /disorders fever, common cold and cough, asthma, abdominal pains, rheumatism, blood pressure, and liver related problems (Table 1).The most commonly used plant part was leaves (28 species), followed by roots (of 25 species), whole plants (17 species), floral parts and fruits (9 species), seeds (7 species), bark (3 species), and resins (2 species) (Figure 3).In most of the plants more than one part was used as medicine.For example, in Saxifraga ligulata both underground and aboveground parts were used for curing different ailments.Most of the species were used for curing more than one disease.These were administrated mostly orally and a range of preparations such as decoction, paste, as powder, as juice or as vegetables eaten raw, herbal tea, and oil were adopted.

Plant
Most of these preparations were made from the freshly collected plants just before the use; however, some are also used in dry form (Table 1).

DISCUSSION
The present study reports the ethnomedicinal use of 70 plant species belonging to 43 families by the Gujjar community of Trikuta hills.Such a high diversity of plant use is indicative of significant role of phytotherapy in curing health problems.Most plant species used by the Gujjars in Trikuta hills belonged to family Asteraceae.This is not surprising since Asteraceae is one of the largest families of flowering plants and is the most abundant in this region (Dar et al., 2002).Besides, other predominant families in the study area were Lamiaceae, Fabaceae, Liliaceae, Polygonaceae and Rubiaceae etc., suggesting their species richness in the local flora and confirmed by earlier reports (Dar et al., 2002).The present study documented that herbs were the primary source of medicine.This may be attributed to humid climate of the area that facilitates the growth of herbs.These observations are in conformity with other studies conducted elsewhere reporting herbs as the most dominant and ethnomedicinally important plants (Tangjang et al., 2011;Yineger et al., 2008).The most frequently used plant part was the leaves followed by roots, whole plant, flowers, fruits, seeds and bark.The greater use of leaves for the purpose of medicine is not surprising since these are the most accessible parts and hence used to the maximum extent for medicinal use (Gurib-Fakim, 2006).Roots were the second most commonly used plant part.However, their excessive use is detrimental for their survival since whole plant has to be uprooted.Not only roots, even the use of more than one plant part for medicinal purpose has put these plants to extinction risk owing to damage inflicted on the plants ( Gurib-Fakim, 2006).
The study reported various preparation methods adopted by the Gujjars.These included preparation of decoction in water, crushing/extracting plant material in cold or boiled water.Medicinal plants like Bistoria amplexicaulis, Saxifraga ligulata and Taxus baccata were taken as herbal tea (Facciola, 1990;Hamayun et al., 2006;Pant et al., 2009).Another interesting mode of administration was tying the plant part against body part to get relief from some diseases.For example, Colebrookia oppositifolia leaves against stomach of infants to get relief from stomach ache; Azadirachta indica leaves around throat to get relief from mumps and tonsils; and leaves of Ricinus communis around joints to provide relief against joint pains.Though these finding have not been validated scientifically, yet may serve as the basis for future investigations.Some of the information gathered during the present study was novel.For example, Allium rubellum is a plant of rare occurrence and there is little information about its medicinal uses in the literature.Some of the plants like Gloriosa superba and Saussurea costus, utilized by the Gujjars of Trikuta hills, belong to rare and endangered plants category; therefore, must be used cautiously and require priority conservation (Chaudhuri, 2007)

Conclusions
The study concludes that Gujjar community of Trikuta hills (Jammu and Kashmir, India) utilize 70 plant species as medicines for curing different ailments.These medicinal plants are the source of common primary health care practices by Gujjars.Efforts are, therefore, required to conserve and protect this traditional knowledge of Gujjars vis-àvis the ethical, cultural and religious aspects in addition to the conservation of these medicinal plant species.Further, the frequent use of these plants, especially roots, is a point of concern since this practice may put them to extinction risk category leading to the loss of the species from the area.

Figure 3 .Figure 4 .
Figure 3. Frequency of use of different parts of ethnomedicinal plants by Gujjar community of Trikuta hills (Jammu and Kashmir, India).

Table 1 .
List of medicinal plants used traditionally by Gujjar community in Trikuta hills, Jammu and Kashmir (India) for the cure of diseases.