Mujtaba Shah Ghulam, Abbasi Arshad Mehmood, Khan Nadeem, Guo Xinbo, Ajab Khan Mir, Hussain Manzoor, Bibi Sultan, Nazir Abdul, Ahmad Tahir Adnan
Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra 835215, Pakistan.
School of Light Industry and Food Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China; Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad 22060, Pakistan.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2014 Aug 8;155(1):450-62. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2014.05.047. Epub 2014 Jun 2.
Malaria is among the most prevalent infectious diseases in the developing countries of world. Estimated number of annual malaria episodes in Pakistan is 1.5 million, but very little is known about medicinal plant species of Pakistan, which have great potential against malarial disease. Present study was aimed to document medicinal plant species used by the local inhabitants of Lesser Himalayas-Pakistan to treat malaria.
Data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and contributor observation. A total of 55 informants aged between 25 and 80 years who were familiar with malarial disease participated in the survey.
A total of 84 plant species belonging to 69 genera and 50 families were recorded to treat malaria. Asteraceae was found as most cited botanical family with (11.9%) representation, followed by Lamiaceae (5.9%), Solanaceae and Verbenaceae (4.7%) and Violaceae (3.5%) respectively. About 60% of the inhabitants prefer herbal treatment by local herbalists or self-treatment with locally available medicinal plant species. Of the plants identified during present investigation against malaria, Azadirachta indica, Swertia chirayita and Swertia ciliata exhibited uppermost frequency of encounter (36.3%) and corresponding PR value 5. About 67.2% of the botanical taxa are reported for the first time in the treatment of malaria. It was observed thatover harvesting is the foremost threat to medicinal plant species of the study area.
Present survey indicates that traditional knowledge about the use of plant species against various diseases and particularly to treat malaria is in decline. Similarly anthropogenic pressure, over exploitation and grazing of the botanical taxa are the major concerns regarding medicinal plant biodiversity loss. Frequently utilized plant species with significant malarial reduction should be authenticated by in vitro and in vivo standard tests.
疟疾是世界上发展中国家最普遍的传染病之一。巴基斯坦每年疟疾发作的估计次数为150万次，但对于巴基斯坦具有抗疟巨大潜力的药用植物种类却知之甚少。本研究旨在记录巴基斯坦小喜马拉雅地区当地居民用于治疗疟疾的药用植物种类。
通过访谈、问卷调查和参与观察收集数据。共有55名年龄在25至80岁之间、熟悉疟疾的受访者参与了调查。
共记录了84种植物，分属于69属50科，用于治疗疟疾。发现菊科是被提及最多的植物科，占比（11.9%），其次是唇形科（5.9%）、茄科和马鞭草科（4.7%）以及堇菜科（3.5%）。约60%的居民更喜欢由当地草药医生进行草药治疗或使用当地可得的药用植物自行治疗。在本次调查中确定的抗疟植物中，印楝、印度獐牙菜和睫毛獐牙菜出现频率最高（36.3%），相应的优先等级值为5。约67.2%的植物分类群在疟疾治疗中是首次被报道。据观察，过度采集是研究区域药用植物物种面临的首要威胁。
本次调查表明，关于植物物种用于治疗各种疾病尤其是疟疾的传统知识正在减少。同样，人为压力、植物分类群的过度开发和放牧是药用植物生物多样性丧失的主要问题。应通过体外和体内标准试验对经常使用且具有显著抗疟效果的植物物种进行鉴定。
