مجله جنگل ایران

مجله جنگل ایران

Exploring Indigenous Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Plant Biodiversity in Palpa District, Nepal: Insights for Global Conservation and Sustainable Healthcare Practices

نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسندگان
1 College of Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Forestry, Agriculture and Forestry University, Katari, Udayapur 56310, Nepal
2 College of Natural Resource Management, Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal
3 . Faculty of Agriculture, Far Western University, Tikapur, Kailali, Nepal
10.22034/ijf.2025.529482.2053
چکیده
Since time immemorial plants have been used as a source of food & medicine. At present, the traditional knowledge on medicinal plants and its practices are at the risk of extinction. Therefore, this study aimed to list out medicinal plants used by indigenous people to treat human diseases, explore the ethnobotanical knowledge and its parts used & assess its knowledge level with respect to demographic characteristics. Questionnaire survey (n=68), key informant interviews (KII=8), focus group discussion (FGD=4) & Field visits were adopted for the primary data collection. Cluster sampling technique was applied & entire respondent were interviewed using semi-structured set of questionnaires. Chi square test for independence was used to find out significant differences. Altogether 99 medicinal plant species belonging to 60 families & 88 genera were documented for the treatment of various ailments. Highest number of plant species belonged to family Poaceae with 5 number of plants respectively followed by families Asteraceae and Zingiberaceae with 4 plant species each. From this research, it was found that herb (56%) as most dominant form followed by trees (16%), climber (12%), shrub (9%), grass (6%), stoloniferous (1%), fruit (17%) as most utilized part of the medicinal plants followed by root, leaf, whole part. Corm is the least used plant part by 1%. Allium sativum was found to be a species with high use value (UV=1.3) followed by Rubus ellipticus whose UV was found to be 1.23. Our findings reveal significant differences (p < 0.001) in the number of plants described across gender and age groups, while no significant variation (p > 0.05) was observed among different ethnic groups. These results highlight the critical need for programs focused on documenting and cultivating medicinal plants. Actively involving local communities as both participants and educators is essential to the effective conservation and sustainable use of these resources, ensuring the preservation and transmission of invaluable indigenous knowledge to future generations.
کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات


عنوان مقاله English

Exploring Indigenous Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Plant Biodiversity in Palpa District, Nepal: Insights for Global Conservation and Sustainable Healthcare Practices

نویسندگان English

Suresh Neupane 1
Rajeev Joshi 2
Arjun Acharya 1
Dikshya Joshi 3
1 College of Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Forestry, Agriculture and Forestry University, Katari, Udayapur 56310, Nepal
2 College of Natural Resource Management, Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal
3 . Faculty of Agriculture, Far Western University, Tikapur, Kailali, Nepal
چکیده English

Since time immemorial plants have been used as a source of food & medicine. At present, the traditional knowledge on medicinal plants and its practices are at the risk of extinction. Therefore, this study aimed to list out medicinal plants used by indigenous people to treat human diseases, explore the ethnobotanical knowledge and its parts used & assess its knowledge level with respect to demographic characteristics. Questionnaire survey (n=68), key informant interviews (KII=8), focus group discussion (FGD=4) & Field visits were adopted for the primary data collection. Cluster sampling technique was applied & entire respondent were interviewed using semi-structured set of questionnaires. Chi square test for independence was used to find out significant differences. Altogether 99 medicinal plant species belonging to 60 families & 88 genera were documented for the treatment of various ailments. Highest number of plant species belonged to family Poaceae with 5 number of plants respectively followed by families Asteraceae and Zingiberaceae with 4 plant species each. From this research, it was found that herb (56%) as most dominant form followed by trees (16%), climber (12%), shrub (9%), grass (6%), stoloniferous (1%), fruit (17%) as most utilized part of the medicinal plants followed by root, leaf, whole part. Corm is the least used plant part by 1%. Allium sativum was found to be a species with high use value (UV=1.3) followed by Rubus ellipticus whose UV was found to be 1.23. Our findings reveal significant differences (p < 0.001) in the number of plants described across gender and age groups, while no significant variation (p > 0.05) was observed among different ethnic groups. These results highlight the critical need for programs focused on documenting and cultivating medicinal plants. Actively involving local communities as both participants and educators is essential to the effective conservation and sustainable use of these resources, ensuring the preservation and transmission of invaluable indigenous knowledge to future generations.

کلیدواژه‌ها English

Medicinal plants
Ethnobotanical knowledge
Indigenous practices
Ailments

مقالات آماده انتشار، پذیرفته شده
انتشار آنلاین از 13 مهر 1404

  • تاریخ دریافت 19 خرداد 1404
  • تاریخ بازنگری 19 مرداد 1404
  • تاریخ پذیرش 05 شهریور 1404