Traditional knowledge is the main source of all the ethnobotanical investigations.Fromthe past days of civilisation, humans have bowedto plants for healing, a tradition that has survived the arrival of modern medicine and found new strength at the end of the 20^thcentury. About seventy percent of the world’s population still relies on traditional plant medicine [69]. India is one of the mega-diversity countries with the significantly high number of medicinal plant resources. It has been estimated that more than eighty-five percent of herbal medicines which areused in traditional healthcare systems are obtained from medicinal plants [46]. Many of the drugs that are prescribed have compounds thatare directly derived from the plants and several others which are being sold are natural products.The increase in alternative systems of medicine is primarily because such systems of medicine produce minimal side effects, and the systems are affordable to large sections of poor population [21]. In many of developing countries, namely, Bangladesh (90%), Myanmar (85%), India (80%), Nepal (75%), Sri Lanka (65%) and Indonesia (60%), rural people are mostly dependent on this system of medicine [21]. WHO has estimated that the global market for medicinal plants and herbal medicine is worth USD 14 billion per year [57] and USD 1billion per year in India [23],[24]. As per the estimation of WHO, the demand for the raw materials of the plants is increasing annually at the rate of fifteen to twenty-five percent which is further estimated to get increased up to more than USD 5 trillion by the year 2050 [25]. According to [50], though there is an increase in global demand for herbal medicines, it is equally important to have a large quantity of quality herbal materials with active principles in the required concentration. The synthesis of complex natural compounds through synthetic chemistry is very challenging as this process is economically prohibitive.Therefore, plants remain to a greater extent, the sole sustainable natural resource of many medicinally important secondary metabolites.Further, the indigenous medicinal knowledge of plants is helpful to ecologists, pharmacologists, taxonomists and wildlife managers in civilising the prosperity of an area [16].During the last century, ethnobotanical surveys are common and such documentations playan important role in the conservation and utilisation of biological resources [43].

A large number of studies have been carried out in the field of ethnobotany from differentparts of India. Some of these include [13],[17],[18],[19],[15],[1],[7],[20],[10],[66],[57],[30] and [68]. Others who explored the ethnobotanical plants from different parts of Jammu and Kashmir include [9],[53],[32],[61],[29],[63],[64],[27],[31],[26],[44],[36],[57],[40],[49],[62],[22],[42],[59],[38],[14],[56] and [21]. Further, ethnobotanical information is also available from other parts of the district Kathua;[54],[37],[58],[41], [4],[48] and [59] but no such reports exist for Hiranagar.

Objective

Keeping in view the lacuna of ethnobotanical studies and the reliability of local people on the indigenous knowledge, the present study was undertaken to survey and document the plant-based human healthcare practices used by the local people, Vaids and Hakims of the Hiranagar.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Study Area

Kathua is one of the administrative districts of Jammu and Kashmir and is the gateway of the state. It lies in the southeast of the Union Territory and is situated at32⁰ 17′ to 32⁰ 55′ north latitude and 75⁰ 70′ to 76⁰ 16′ east longitude and encompasses 2651 km² area. The district is surrounded by Punjab in the southeast, Himachal Pradesh in the northeast, Doda and Udhampur in the north and northwest, Jammu in the west and Pakistan in the southwest (Figure 1). Kathua includes 11 tehsils, 19 blocks and 512 villages with an area of 2,651 km². Hiranagar is one of the important tehsils of the district located at 32.45̊ N, 75.27̊`E with an average altitude of 308 m.a.s.l. The tehsil is spread over an area of 389 km² with 384.92 km² being rural while only 4km² is urban. The annual rainfall varies from 912 to1801 mm while the annual temperature varies from 9 to 48°C.The district comprises four tehsils, namely, Kathua, Hiranagar, Basohli and Billawar etc. Theinhabitants of the district belong to different cultures and communities such as Gujjars, Bakarwals, Hindus and Muslims, who frequently use the plants for health-related problems. There are 202 villages with a population of 1,37,798 including 1,29,504 rural and 8294 urban [6]. The people of the area are the repository of accumulated experience and knowledge about traditional uses of medicinal plants, but due to modern civilisation, the knowledge about the use of traditional herbal wealth is vanishing rapidly.

Survey Methods

For the documentation of the utilisation of medicinal plants, a total of 10 field surveys were conducted from 2014-2016 in the studyarea. The surveys were extended across seasons to get the highest information, and also to cross check the information provided by the local informants during the earlier visits. The surveys were carried out from different areas, and information was collected through interactions and discussions with informants and local herbal healers (Figs.1-5). The data for this article was collected by periodic field trips to different villages of Hiranagartehsil. The various localities visited for the purpose include Arjan Chak, Bhaiya, GurahMundian, Katal, Pathwal, Jandi, Dyalachak and Subachak. During field trips, help was taken from local people to identify the plants for their use and local name (Figs. 6-11). The local names and uses of each plant were collected on the spot.The information of the medicinal plants was collected from Gujjar and Bakarwal tribes, and the Dogra community of district Hiranagar, in Jammu Province, Jammu and Kashmir, Union Territory of India. During the survey,aquestionnaire and personal interview methods were adopted. The structured questionnaires, interviews and participatory observation were used to draw information from the resource personsby using standard methods. Links were madewith elderly persons to get information regarding the points outlined in the questionnaire along with holding personal interviews with Vaids and Hakims regarding the medicinal use of various plants.Many tribal doctors were often taken to the forest as guides and informants to identify the medicinal plants in their natural habitat. The discussion and information collected from local villagers and informants wererecorded and documented. Photographs of various plant species were taken when found necessary.The collected plants were identified with the help of various ‘Floras’, such as Flora of Jammu [53] and Flora of Udhampur [64]. The identifications were then confirmed at the Herbarium, Department of Botany at the University of Jammu.

RESULTS

The knowledge about medicinal plants and their use in the treatment of different diseases are rather specialised and limited to a few people in the community who are recognized as herbal healers or witch doctor or Vaids. In some localities, there are several individuals who do not practice herbal medicine but possess medicinal knowledge and act as reliable informants. These tribal people have remarkable knowledge of the identification, characteristics and use of different plant species.At present, a total of 50 plants belonging to 29 families of angiosperms were collected and studied for the ethnobotanicalaspects from different villages of tehsil Hiranagarin district Kathua of Jammu and Kashmir. The ethnobotanical information on these plants is reported for the first time from the study area.These plantspecies were used by local people in the rural areas of the tehsil in the absence of modern healthcare facilities. Among these plants, the majority were herbaceous with some shrubs, under-shrubs and trees as well. The people in the area utilise these species inmultiplehome remedies for the treatment of various ailments such as rheumatism, toothache, ulcers, eye troubles, female problems, asthma, cough and cold, fever, typhoid stomach problems, indigestion, vomiting, skin problems, brain tonic, constipation and piles, headache, dysentery, boils, etc. Besides, some species found were usefulagainst cancer (Amaranthusviridis, Chenopodium album), diabetes (Aeglemarmelos, Amaranthusviridis, Calotropisprocera), kidney stones (Bryophyllumpinnatum. Citrus psedolimon), snake bites (Erianthusravennae) and itching and ring worm (Allium sativum, Ranunculusmuricatus). Further, Centellaasiatica and Emblicaofficinalis were used as tonic for the brain and liver, respectively. It was also observed that a single plant might be used for curing numerous ailments, for example, Acacia nilotica, Achyranthesaspera, Aeglemarmelos, Calotropisprocera, Ficuspalmata, Justiciaadhatoda, etc. In addition to the treatment of human diseases, many species (Aloe vera, Cassia fistula, Cyanodondactylon, Grewiaoptiva) were used to cure different animal diseases. In the majority of the cases (56.8%), leaves were used for curing differentailments followed by roots (19.6%), seeds (9.8%), bulbs (7.8%), flowers (3.9%) andwholeplants(1.96). Majority of the plant species were herbs(44%) followed by trees (36%) and shrubs (18%), whereas only two percent wereclimbers(Table 1). Further, most of the species belong to the family Euphorbiaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, Liliaceae and Rutaceae with three species each. While families like Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Apiaceae, Lamiaceae, Meliaceae, Mimosaceae, Myrtaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Poaceae and Solanaceae are represented by two species each. Rest of the families (Apocynaceae, Araceae, Asclepiadaceae, Cannabinaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Crassulaceae, Ehretiaceae, Fabaceae, Flacaurtiaceae, Lauraceae, Papaveraceae, Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, and Tiliaceae) are represented by single species each. The details about the botanical name, local name, family, plant part used and their ethnomedicinal uses are provided in Table 2.

DISCUSSION

The Indian system of medicines utilises 80% of the materials derived from the plants. There are about 2,500 plant species having great medicinal value, most of which are growing in the wild. The information on their biological activity and chemical constituents arealso available [34],[8]. The information of medicinal species increases considerably with oldness and this might be associated to the fact that theexpansion of knowledge of medicinal plants is a lifetimepractice [45].[70] has opined thatmedicinal plant knowledge and uses are directly proportional in case there is loss of ethnomedicinal plant knowledge in the community.

                Thispresent study provides a wide rangeof information on the diversity and indigenous uses of 50 angiospermic plants growing wild in Tehsil Hiranagar.The results are in agreement with the findings of [35],[28],[39],[3],[41],[4],[22],[48] and [52]. who reported about plants that are traditionally used for curing many diseases.The domination of medicinal plantsof families. Euphorbiaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, Liliaceaeand Rutaceaeis accredited to their wider distribution andrichness in the study area. Previously, [2] also reported control of medicinal species from other study areas.Herbaceous plants remained the most utilized medicinal plants and the results are in agreemen twith the overall pattern of dominance of herbaceous species[65],[11],[43],[70],[12][2],[48]. Such a dominanceof herbs species is ascribed to the fact that they are more effortless lyaccessible in the nearby areas than trees and shrubs. Leaves were the maximum used plant part, followed by roots, seeds, bulbs, flowers and whole plant.Earlier studies by [33],[37],[4] have also reportedsame results.As per the study by [5], the soft parts of the plants (leaves, buds and flowers)are the highestsource of volatile components, delicate fragrances and active principles.Theinhabitants of the area use various bio-resources to meet their daily requirements. They use different plant parts in various forms to meet their daily needs.Throughout the world, the traditional practice of using plant resources has a long history and wide acceptability. As per the World Health Organisation, over three-fourths of the world population cannot afford modern medicines andhave to rely on the use of traditional medicines of plant origin [47]. The conservation and sustainable utilisation of bio-resources are important subjects of attention throughout the world. Thus, the documentation of information on diversity andindigenous practices must help in the preservation of that knowledge. According to [67], traditional knowledge represents an immensely valuable database that provides baseline information for the commercial exploitation of the biological resources. The ethnobotanical information is also useful for pharmacologists, botanists and thosehaving the potential of developing alternative therapies.Also, the plants which are least known may prove useful in phyto- pharmacological research and hence may play essential role in the discovery of new therapeutic substances for the veterinaryand other drugs.

CONCLUSION

Consideringthe importance of ethnobotanical data, the presently collected information could supplement the direction of the local biodiversity catalogues, which is a key tool for achieving regional and global biodiversity and conservation strategies. It is valuable to impart knowledge to these local practitioners about the variants of such medicinal plants, which could be better result oriented. Further, documentation of traditional knowledge will be useful to understand the pharmacological aspects of the medicinal species of the area.Additionally, at present anthropogenic activities such as industrialisation,deforestation, habitat destruction, urbanisation, etc. pose a serious threat to these species. Thus, it is necessary to document the ethnobotanical flora and conserve it forthe future. The present study is a step towards the conservation of the medicinal plants with appropriate measures to be undertaken with the participation of the local people.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The present findings reveal that tehsil Hiranagar of the district Kathua (Jammu and Kashmir) has remained unexplored for ethnobotanical surveys. It is recommended that additional surveys must be carried out to look for beneficial and harmful aspects of traditional healthcare practices as well as introducemodern medical facilities in the area. In addition, the ethnobotanical usages for the treatment of different ailments need to besubjected to detailed scientific screening to identify the actual useful herbal formulations.

About Article

The article is a research article where the authors have documented the ethno-medicinal plants belonging to Angiosperms used by the inhabitants of Tehsil Hiranagar of District Kathua in J&KUT. The present study is first of its kind andno such study has conducted earlier from the same region.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to Dr. R. K. Manhas, Department of Botany, Government Degree Basholi, Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, India, for necessary inputs and suggestions towards the study.

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Table 1: Frequency (%) of different preferred plant parts used for the treatment of different ailments in tehsil Hiranagar of district Kathua (Jammu & Kashmir)

Table 2: Ethnobotanical information about some plants of tehsil Hiranagar, district Kuthua of Jammu & Kashmir