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Medicinal Plant Research 2014, Vol.4, No.5, 35
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45
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35
Research Report Open Access
Ethnobotanical Studies on Plant Resources of Sheikh Maltoon, District Mardan,
Pakistan
Musharaf Khan
1
, Shahana Musharaf
2
1. Department of Botany, Federal Government College Mardan, Pakistan
2. Department of Chemistry, Government Girls Degree College, Sheikh Maltoon, Mardan, Pakistan
Corresponding author email: k.musharaf@gmail.com;
Authors
Medicinal Plant Research, 2014, Vol.4, No.5 doi: 10.5376/mpr.2014.04.0005
Received: 04 Mar., 2014
Accepted: 11 Mar., 2014
Published: 18 Mar., 2014
Copyright
© 2014 Khan et al. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Khan et al., 2014, Ethnobotanical Studies on Plant Resources of Sheikh Maltoon, District Mardan, Pakistan, Vol.4, No.5 35-45 (doi: 10.5376/mpr.2014.04.
0005)
Abstract
This paper reports an ethnobotanical study conducted in the year 2008 in the Sheikh Maltoon Towan and adjoining area,
District Mardan. The most significant plants are cited in this paper, along with their local names, the parts of them used, popular uses.
Among overall plants, 73 were medicinal plant species, 56 honeybee species, 50 fodder and forage species, 30 fuel wood species, 20
vegetable/pot-herb species, 19 multi-purpose species, fruit yielding and ornamental species 16 species each, 15 thatching/roofing
species, 11 fencing/hedges plants and 8 agricultural tools making species. The study indicated that the investigated area is under
heavy biotic interference and overgrazing pressure. Resultantly, valuable economic and medicinal plants of the area are decreasing.
Sustainable utilization, proper management and conservation of the flora of the area is highly recommended. The area was
investigated for the first time and information about the traditional remedies with special reference to their medicinal uses were
collected and documented before they are lost.
Keywords
Ethnobotany, Medicinal plants, Folk medicine, Sheikh Maltoon, Mardan
Background
Traditional knowledge of plants used by human being
is based on thousands of years practice. By “check and
fault”, people learnt how to distinguish and use plants,
including those with a magic-religious purpose.
Among the oldest signals to plant use were the pollen
remains of medicinal plants originate on an
archaeological dig at Shanidar (Iraq). These were
about 60,000 years old, from the Neanderthal period
(Lietava, 1992). Knowledge of plant use was common
in primitive civilizations. Until the middle of the 19th
century, plants were the main therapeutic agents used
by humans, and even today their role in medicine is
still significant. The term ethnobotany was coined in
1895 by the North American botanist John
Harshberger to describe studies of “plants used by
primitive and aboriginal people” (Balick and Cox,
1996). By the end of the 19th century ethnobotany had
started to develop as a science, providing a new
appliance for pharmaceutical study. Studies on
ethnobotany have been conducted in the other
countries ohe world (Gupta et al., 1997); Singh et al.,
1997); Vedavathy & Mrudula (1997); Siwakoti and
Siwakoti (1998); Ghimireet et al. (1999); Khan (2000);
Mustafa et al. (2000), Siddiqui et al. (2000),
Camejo-Rodrigues (2003) and Coopoosamy & Naidoo
(2012). In Pakistan such studies have also been carried
out on the ethnobotany of various parts of Khyber
Pakhtoon Khawa (Hussain et al., 1995); Hussain &
Sher (1998); Sher et al. (2003; 2004); Hussain et al.
(2004; 2005), Ibrar et al. (2007). Ethnobotanical
studies have also been carried out by Tariq et al.,
1995; Shinwari & Khan (1997; 1998), Durrani et al.
(2003), Gilani et al. (2003) Khan et al. (2011a) in
various parts of the country, however no work on the
ethnobotany of present area has been presented.
Medicinal plants used by the restricted people ethno
botanically are of huge significance that is the cause a
lot of people are busy in the deal of important
medicinal herbs, shrubs and tree species in and outside
the country. Therefore, the present study reports the
traditional utilization of some plants of the area, which
might be helpful for the future workers, ecologist,
pharmacologists, taxanomists, wild life and water
shed managers.