Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2019 Jan 28;15(1):6. doi: 10.1186/s13002-018-0281-0.
The ethnic groups in Gilgit-Baltistan have been utilizing local resources in their centuries-old traditional healing system. Most tribes within these ethnic groups still rely on traditional healing systems. We aim to understand the current status, uses, and abundance of medicinal plants, associated traditional knowledge, and trade.
The study incorporated over 300 local community members (70% men and 30% women) in focused group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and homework assignments for 8th to 12th grade students to document traditional knowledge (TK) in six districts in Northeast Pakistan. We calculated various indices such as informant consensus factor, use value, relative frequency of citation, and CoKriging. These indices, along with repetitively used medicinal plants, were used to analyze differences in studied locations.
Most of the community members still rely on traditional medication in the study areas. However, we found the highest number of medicinal plants used in Skardu and Gilgit compared to other districts and these two districts also represent trade centers and a highly populated area regarding medicinal plants. Results indicate connection amongst the surveyed villages signifying mixing of knowledge from different sources, with certain areas more influenced by traditional Chinese medicine and others more by Ayurveda and Unani.
TK is mostly retained with elder community members; however, those directly linked with market value chain retain rich knowledge on traditional use of the medicinal plants from the region. Major trade centers in the region also coincide with a high density of medicinal plant occurrence, knowledge, and higher utilization. Therefore, with the increasing trade in medicinal plant in the region, there is potential for rejuvenation of this knowledge and of plant use in the region.
吉尔吉特-巴尔蒂斯坦的各族群在其数百年的传统疗愈体系中一直利用当地资源。这些族群中的大多数部落仍然依赖传统疗愈体系。我们旨在了解药用植物的现状、用途和丰度，以及相关的传统知识和贸易。
本研究纳入了来自巴基斯坦东北部六个地区的 300 多名当地社区成员（70%为男性，30%为女性），通过焦点小组讨论、半结构化访谈和 8 至 12 年级学生的家庭作业，记录传统知识（TK）。我们计算了各种指标，如信息共识因子、使用价值、相对引用频率和 CoKriging。这些指标以及反复使用的药用植物，用于分析研究地点之间的差异。
研究地区的大多数社区成员仍依赖传统药物。然而，我们发现斯卡都和吉尔吉特的药用植物数量最多，而其他地区则相对较少。这两个地区也是药用植物的贸易中心和人口稠密地区。结果表明，调查村庄之间存在联系，表明不同来源的知识混合，某些地区受传统中医影响较大，而其他地区则受阿育吠陀和顺势疗法影响较大。
TK 主要由老年社区成员保留；然而，那些直接与市场价值链相关的人保留了该地区传统药用植物使用的丰富知识。该地区的主要贸易中心也与药用植物发生、知识和更高利用率的高密度相吻合。因此，随着该地区药用植物贸易的增加，这种知识和植物利用在该地区具有复兴的潜力。
