Revealing ethnomedical knowledge: perspectives from quantitative and sociodemographic data

Unveiling Ethnomedicinal Knowledge

Abstract

The paper examines the ethnomedical value of the wild flora in Muzaffargarh, Pakistan, and how it can be used to provide sustainable food resources and to support local health care. 29 ethnomedical plants in 20 botanical categories were recorded through semi-structured interviews with 534 individuals. Fabaceae and Amaranthaceae were the two most common families, with 11% each of the known flora, respectively. Use Value (UV), Fidelity Level (FL), Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), and the Jaccard Index (JI) are a few examples of the quantitative ethnobotanical indices that helped determine the cultural relevance, dependability, and consistency of the plant use. Chenopodium album and Chenopodium murale gave the highest values of UV (1.0), meaning that these two plants are highly therapeutically acceptable within the community. The health conditions that had the highest unanimity were lice infestation (ICF = 0.998) and arsenic toxicity (ICF = 0.996). Lysimachia arvensis was the highest FL (100) in the treatment of jaundice. On comparison of 45 ethnobotanical research published between 2015 and 2022, districts such as Jhang were not very overlapping (JI = 0.78), which demonstrates region-specific ethnomedical knowledge, and Faisalabad had the most similarities (JI = 13.9). It is interesting to mention that novel, unreported medicinal properties were mentioned in 19 plant species, including Taraxacum officinale, Calotropis gigantea, Moringa oleifera, and Abutilon indicum. All in all, the findings demonstrate the relative efficiency of the indigenous knowledge, the potential of such practice in the context of pharmaceutical benefit, and the importance of the preservation of such cultural heritage and the adequate inclusion of such information into modern healthcare and biodiversity management practices.