DOI: 10.5061/dryad.66t1g1k3c
title: Traditional use of medicinal plants among the indigenous communities in district Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir, India

description: A number of indigenous communities reside in the Himalayan belt of
 Baramulla, where the lack of modern health care facilities represents
 crucial problems to their survival. Therefore the current study was aimed
 at documenting traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in the region.
 Ethnomedicinal data was collected during 2018-2020. Fifty-one informants
 were interviewed in seventeen villages via questionnaires, semi-structured
 interviews and group discussions. Data was also analyzed by various
 ethnobotanical indices. A total of 85 plant species distributed in 40
 families were documented. Asteraceae was reported to be the dominant plant
 family and leaves were the most frequently utilized plant part.
 Musculoskeletal disorder scored the highest ICF value (0.87). Colchicum
 luteum (0.61), Verbascum thapsus (0.59) reported highest UV and Viola
 odorata, Ajuga integrifolia had the highest FL of 100%. Of the documented
 species about 18 plants (21%) were reported for the first time to be used
 in the area. Medicinal plants still play an important role in the
 healthcare sector and the folk knowledge attached to them is remarkable in
 the region, although declining among the younger generations. Medicinal
 plants reported for the first time, needs to be studied pharmacologically.
description: <b>Data
 collection  </b> A number of
 field surveys were conducted during June 2018 to December 2020 to collect
 the primary data regarding the study. To conduct this research a prior
 permission was sought from the respected committees (approval provided by
 RDC committee of the university in the form of doctoral research) of
 Jiwaji University, Gwalior (16/2018 dated 23nd July 2018). For documenting
 folk knowledge of ethnic people about plants from study area, the college
 doesn't need ethical approval according to norms of our state since
 the study has not involved any animal usage. The help acquired from the
 ethnic people of study area for documentation of medicinal uses was duly
 acknowledged. Field methods for undertaking ethnopharmacological studies
 as well as most of recommendations as suggested by Heinrich et al. (2018)
 were followed and incorporated in this study. The informants
 were selected on the basis of information regarding the use of medicinal
 plants. Informants were interviewed through different types of interview
 methods including semi-structured interviews and group discussions by
 using standard questionnaire (Appendix I) (Martin 1995). Prior to
 interviews the objective of the study was explained to participants taking
 part in the study. The information was collected in the local language and
 was then translated to English language. Prior consent was taken from
 participants to make it possible to share their knowledge regarding the
 indigenous use of medicinal plants for the treatment of various ailments,
 cause and symptoms of the ailments they used to treat, local names of the
 medicinally important plant species, plant parts used in the preparation
 of herbal remedy and mode of application of the particular remedy used in
 the treatment. Informants were given time as per their convenience to
 answer the questions. During the survey we have followed two methods.
 First method was the specimen display method in which fresh plant
 materials were showed to informants to gather medicinal information and
 the same plant was shown to other informants to confirm accuracy of data
 for a particular plant. In second method of survey, some of the field
 walks (Martin 1995, Maundu 1995) were also followed with local
 knowledgeable informants. Guided field walk to the forest area allowed us
 to collect best possible information about the identification and
 utilization of important medicinal plant species. To check the
 confirmation and consistency of formulations, each informant was
 interviewed more than once. Furthermore, primary data were also compared
 with some of the high quality papers published from adjoining areas of
 Northwestern Himalaya including Kashmir valley to check the similarity of
 the study.
description: This research contains a single data set in excel spreadsheet
 containing the information related the number of families, genera and the
 percentage of the plant species in each family reported from the study
 region.