STUDY OF IMPORTANT MEDICINAL PLANTS OF DISTRICT DIR UPPER, PAKISTAN

The research work was based on the collection of old knowledge from local people and herbalists (hakims) of the locality about the uses of the native medicinal plants. Survey was done in the local villages, fields and mountains of Tehsil Wari, District Dir (Upper), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, during February to September 2013. In the survey, a questionnaire was made to ask the local people and herbalists about their indigenous knowledge of the local medicinal plants for treatment of various diseases. A sum of 39 plants species, belonging to 30 different families having 36 various genera were collected during the spring and summer seasons of 2013. Among these families, four species (10.20%) were of Lamiaceae, three species (8%) of Apiaceae, two species (5.12%) each of Solanaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Fagaceae and Polygonaceae. The rest of the families i.e. Violaceae, Rananculaceae, Araceae, Hippocastanceae, Asteraceae, Berberidiaceae, Brassicaeae, Buxaceae, Cannabiaceae, Euporbiaceae, Cruciferae, Fabaceae, Juglandaceae, Meliaceae, Moraceae, Myrsinaceae, Paeoniaceae, Oleaceae, Rhamnaceae, Rosaceae, Rutaceae, Sapindaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Sexifragaceae had only one species (2.56%) each. The study concluded that the local people use the indigenous flora for treatment of different diseases. They have no proper way of collection, conservation and storage of these medicinal plants. These medicinal plants were mostly used as carminative, digestive, stimulant, emollient, aphrodisiac, tonic, laxative, anthelimnetic and antipyretic etc.