ETHNO BOTANICAL SURVEY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS OF SARGODHA REGION AND ITS VICINITIES

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1 Short communication ETHNO BOTANICAL SURVEY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS OF SARGODHA REGION AND ITS VICINITIES Ghani Abdul 1*, Hasan Naqi 2, Ishtiaq M 3 1, 2, 3 Department of Biological Sciences,University of Sargodha, Sargodha. Pakistan * Corresponding Author: ghaniuaf@yahoo.com; Phone: Received: 20/04/2012; Revised: 27/05/2012; Accepted: 31/05/2012 ABSTRACT In recent times, focus on plant research has increased all over the world and a large body of evidence has collected to show massive potential of medicinal plants used in various traditional systems. Medicinal plants based traditional systems of medicines are playing a vital role in providing health care to large sections of population, especially in developing countries. Interest in them and utilization of herbal products produced based on them is increasing in developed countries also. To gain maximum benefits it is necessary to have minimum basic level information on their different aspects. This article has been based on the results of an ethno-botanical research conducted in Sargodha region. The main objective of this study was to enlist the wealth of medicinal plants. In total 23 species, belonging to 17 families of wild herbs, shrubs and trees, were found to be used as medicinal plants by the inhabitants in the Sargodha region. Keywords: Sargodha region, identification and uses of medicinal plants

2 INTRODUCTION Medicinal plants are consumed worldwide for the treatment of several diseases and plant species form an important source of raw material for pharmaceutical industries. In recent decades the use of herbal medicines has increased worldwide. This may be because of the fact that the side-effects of these materials are often lower than synthetic drugs apart from the higher costs of many conventional pharmaceutical formulations (Rates, 2000). Therapeutic plants have always been valued as a mode of treatment of variety of ailments in folk cultures and have played a very important role in discovering the modern day medicines with novel chemical constituents (Chan, 2003; Haider et al., 2004; Devi et al., 2008; Shirin et al., 2010). Although the efficacy of medicinal plants for curative purposes is often accounted for in terms of their organic constituents like essential oils, vitamins, glycosides etc. Medicinal plants come into preparation of various drugs singly or in combination or even are used as the principal source of raw material for the other medicines (Mohanta et al., 2003). Sargodha is a district of Punjab province, Pakistan. It is an agricultural district. Wheat, rice, and sugarcane are its main crops. The Sargodha district and region are also famous for citrus fruit. The district has an area of 5,864 km 2. The term Sargodha has its origins in the words Sar, meaning pond (Talab), and Godha, meaning sadhu (Baba). Just over a century ago, there was a well owned by a Hindu named Goodha, the well was known as "Gool Khuuh" (round well), and travelers used it as a resting place. There is a market at the place where Gool Khuuh used to exist and a grand mosque above the market and it is known as "Goal Chowk", which is the center of downtown Sargodha today. Sargodha mainly comprises of flat, fertile plains, although here are a few small hills on the Sargodha- Faisalabad Road. The River Jhelum flows on the western and northern sides, and the River Chenab lies on the eastern side of the city. The city has a climate of extreme heat and cold. MATERIALS AND METHODS This research was conducted during summer in Sargodha valley. The plants were collected, dried and preserved for identification. They were identified with the help of available literature [Stewart 1972, Nasir and Ali ]. The information about the medicinal uses of the plants was obtained from the local people through questionnaires. The outcome of the results were rechecked and compared with literature like that of Rubina [1998], Ali and Fefevre [1996] and Khalid [1995]. The data was analyzed and indigenous knowledge was documented. RESULT AND DISCUSSION The importance of the herbal medicine can be well understood by the saying of Hippocrates Let medicine be your food and food your medicine. The botanical sources of large number of folk medicines, found therapeutically effective in indigenous systems, are still unknown (Ahmad et al., 2008, 2009; Abbasi et al., 2009; Shah et al., 2009). The research revealed that local folk utilizes 41 species of plants belonging to 29 families for various purposes (Table 1). The people of the region are generally ignorant about the medicinal and economic importance of these plants. Out of the 41 medicinal plants, only 20 species were known to the locals and the rest of the species of high medicinal and economic values were completely unknown to the local community of the area.

3 TABLE 1: CHECK LIST OF MEDICINAL FLORA S.No Botanical Name Vernacular Name Family Part Used Ethno medicinal Uses 1. Plantago ovata 2. Peganum harmala 3. Boerhavia diffusa 4. Spinacea oleracea 5. Solanum nigrum 6. Tribulus terrestris 7. Cynodon dactylon 8. Agaricus campestris L. 9. Allium cepa L. 10. Allium sativum L. 11. Beta vulgaris L 12. Citrulus lanatus 13. Hordeum vulgare L 14. Lagenaria siceraria 15. Lawsonia inermis 16. Citrus aurantifolia Ispaghul Plantaginaceae Seeds fruit Antidiarrhoeal, Constipation and and leaves laxative. Hermal Zygophyllaceae Whole Brain tonic, insecticidal and Viral Plant diseases. It sit Nyctaginaceae Leaves, Antiamoebic, Antibacterial, pain Bark relief, improves and protects eyesight. Palak Chenopodiaceae Leaves Anemia, Bone's Tonic and produce and stem fresh blood. Makoo Solanaceae Whole Antiseptic, tonic in fever, dyspepsia, Plant scabies, skin infection, dental problem. Bhakra Zygophyllaceae Whole Painful urination Plant Khuble ghas Poaceae Roots Diuretic and Laxative Khunbii Mushroom Agaricaceae Whole part Eye diseases, germicide, arthritis, paralysis, parkensis, muscle pain, headache and dizziness. Piaz Alliaceae Bulb, leaves and seeds. Stomach diseases, cholera, Diarrhea, throat infection, common cold cough, fever, influenza, ear pain, appetizer, headache, hepatitis, piles, eye diseases. Lahson Alliaceae Bulb Wound healer, paralysis, digestive problems asthma, intestinal pain worms, cough, headache, tuberculosis. Choqandar Chenopodiaceae Roots and leaves Tarbooz Cucurbitaceae Fruit and seeds. Liver infection, muscle weakness, skin disease, hepatitis, kidney pain, headache. Clears the urine and stomach, facial beauty, increase immunity, jaundice and have cold effects. Jao Poaceae Fruit Fever, weakness, increase immunity, heart diseases, kidney pain, intestinal ulcer maintain cholesterol level, jaundice and have cooling effect. Kaddo Cucurbitaceae Fruit and leaves Mehndi Lythraceae Leaves, branches and flowers Laymun Rutaceae Fruit, juice, bark and seeds Headache, fever, Madness, Piles, lungs infection, common cold, kidney and liver disorder and heart diseases. Wound healer, headache, increase memory, cool effect, protect the rupture of skin, skin softer; heal the muscle and chicken pox. Antidote, remove spot from skin, piles, stomach disorder, hepatitis, heart diseases, intestinal pain, pimples.

4 17. Lens culinaris 18. Nigella sativa 19. Phoenix dactylifera 20. Trigonella foenumgraecum L. 21. Zingiber officinale Roscoe. 22. Cucumis Sativus 23. Zizyphus jujuba Masoor Papilionaceae Seeds Maleness, measles, paralysis, common cold, parkensis, face clearness, eye infection, digestive diseases. Clongy Ranunculaceae Seeds Hysteria, common cold, asthma, constipation, urine blockage, gastric acute, gastro enteritis, diabetes, kidney stone, baldness, gas trouble, brain disorders, pneumonia, cough. Khajoor Arecaceae Fruit Heart diseases, skin diseases, antidote, swelling of kidney, intestinal pain, heart attack, wound healer, diarrhea, stomach pain, piles, liver disorders. Maithi Papilionaceae Seed and leaves. Throat infection, swelling, body pain, cough, stomach pain, piles, dandruff baldness, lungs infection, diabetes, ulcer, diarrhea and gas trouble, back pain, seeds in powder form used for diabetes. Adrak or Sonth Zingiberaceae Fruit Intestinal pain, anorexia, dyspepsia, headache, diarrhea, constipation, intestinal swelling, digestive stimulant, cooling effect on body. Cucumber Liliaceae fruit. Sedative and diuretic, anti-rheumatic and anti-inflammation of the eyes. Stimulant appetite. beri Rhamnaceae Fruit, leaves and roots Jaundice, Skin disease, Carminative, Sedative. CONCLUSION The area needs proper protection for the conservation and survival of bio-resources with the help of local people. Regular chemical screening of medicinal plants and their useful parts collected from the fields in different seasons should be done. Small scale processing units and regional repositories for the valued Drugs should be established. To prevent the extinction of these medicinal species, ex-situ conservation efforts may be undertaken to grow the sensitive species by acclimatizing them and in situ conservation of as many species possible could be done with the help of voluntary organizations and local NGO s. If done this could be an asset for the future generations to come. REFERENCES Abbasi AM, Khan MA, Ahmad M, Zafar M, Khan H, Muhammad N, Sultana S (2009). Medicinal plants used for the treatment of jaundice and hepatitis based on socio-economic documentation. Afr. J. Biotechnol., 8(8): Ahmad M, Khan MA, Hasan A, Zafar M, Sultana S (2008). Chemotaxonomic standardization of herbal drugs Milk thistle and Globe thistle. Asian. J. Chem., 6(20): Ahmad M, Khan MA, Zafar M, Hasan A, Sultana S, Shah GM, Tareen RB (2009). Chemotaxonomic

5 authentication of Herbal Drug Chamomile. Asian J. Chem., 21(5): Ali, S.I. and Y.J. Nasir Flora of Pakistan. No Department of Botany, University of Karachi and National Herbarium, PARC, Islamabad. Chan K (2003). Some aspects of toxic contamination in herbal medicines, Chemosphere. 52: Devi NK, Sharma NH, Kumar S (2008). Estimation of essential and trace elements in some medicinal plants by PIXE and PIGE techniques, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res. B 266: Haider S, Naithani V, Barthwal J, Kakkar P (2004). Heavy metal content in therapeutically important medicinal plants, Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 72: Mohanta B, Chakraborty A, Sudarshan M, Dutta RK, Baruah M (2003). Elemental profile in some common medicinal plants of India. Its correlation with traditional therapeutic usage. J. Radioanalytical, Nuclear. Chem., 258(1): Nasir, Y.J and Rafiq.R.A (1995). Wild Flowers of Pakistan. Edited by Roberts T. J., Oxford, University Press, Karachi: pp 298. Rates, SMK. (2000). Review: Plants as a source of drugs. Toxicon. 39: Shah GM, Khan MA, Ahmad M, Zafa M, Khan AA (2009). Observations on antifertility and abortifacient herbal drugs. Afr. J. Biotechnol. Shirin K, Imad S, Shafiq S, Fatima K (2010). Determination of major and trace elements in the indigenous medicinal plant Withania somnifera and their possible correlation with therapeutic activity. J. Saudi Chem. Soc. 14: Source of support: Nil Conflict of Interest: None declared