Medicinal Plants Used in Tribal Healthcare Practices for the Treatment of Gastrointestinal Ailments in UT of Jammu and Kashmir: A Review

Abstract

The present review provides a comprehensive assessment of ethnomedicinal knowledge associated with the use of different plant species for treatment of gastrointestinal ailments among various tribal communities of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The study is based on an analysis of 34 research papers published in different journals and accessed through online databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, Pub Med, Research Gate etc. A total of 235 plant species representing 83 families were documented in the present review. Asteraceae represented by 29 species was the most dominant family followed by Lamiaceae (17 spp.), Rosaceae (15 spp.) and Fabaceae (13 spp.). Among the reported therapeutic applications, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, dysentery, constipation and indigestion were the most common ailments treated by using 60, 47, 45, 38 and 37 species respectively. The leaves were identified as the most frequently utilized plant part for preparing traditional herbal remedies, contributing 23.4% of the reported uses, followed by roots (19.6%) and whole plants (17.5%). The findings reveal the rich ethnomedicinal knowledge preserved among indigenous tribal communities such as Gujjar, Bakerwal, Gaddi, Balti and other tribal populations inhabiting different ecological zones of Jammu and Kashmir.