ETHNOBOTANICAL SURVEY OF PLANTS NEAR MANGLA DAM, DISTRICT MIRPUR, AZAD JAMMU AND KASHMIR BY USING MICRO STATISTICAL TOOLS
Abstract
Plants have been particularly significant and incredibly important for the people. The use of plants as medicine is crucial in developing nations like Pakistan, especially when providing accessible and affordable healthcare. However, research to ascertain the informant consensus factor (ICF) and fidelity level (FL) has been few, which is why this investigation was carried out. This was carried out in the surroundings of Mangla dam in the District Mirpur Azad Jammu and Kashmir, where 40 informant
s and 5 Hakims were questioned about their medical expertise using a semi-structured questionnaire. A total of 50 plants belonging to 33 families were investigated with their botanic name, common name, family, plant part used, habitat and medicinal importance. Plants included here were known to exist and were being employed to treat different types of human illnesses. The main objective of the recent investigation was to enlist and investigate the ethnobotanically significant plants and their medicinal uses to cure different health problems in District Mirpur. Data analysis through FL depicts that Spinacia oleracea has the highest fidelity level of 95%, followed by the Vitis viniferous with a fidelity level of about 94%, and were predominantly used. With ICF values ranging from 0.15 to 0.85, there were several agreements among the informants regarding the plants employed for each illness group. The highest ICF value is recorded for fever (0.85), followed by hepatitis (0.8) and then followed by malaria, constipation and pneumonia (0.75). Leaves were the parts of plants having the highest usage (42%), followed by the fruit (40%) used by the native people to cure various diseases. Infused is the dosage form having the highest probability of nearly 32% success, followed by fresh juice at 22%. Rosaceae has been a master family with four plant species, followed by Solanaceae, Rutaceae and Umbelliferae, with two plant species. Therefore, this study shows the depth of medical expertise of District Mirpur and serves as a foundation for further pharmacological investigation