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Ethnoveterinary botanical survey of medicinal plants used in Pashto, Punjabi and Saraiki communities of Southwest Pakistan

Abstract Medicinal plants are highly used in the ethnoveterinary practice as considerable livestock resources in remote areas. The aim of the present study is to explore the ethnoveterinary medicinal practices in three different communities and discuss the cross‐cultural consensus on the usage of medicinal plants for the treatment of animals. The field survey was conducted by the animal healers of the area during the different seasons of plant growth. A total of 83 informants were interviewed through Semi‐structured interview involving experts of traditional knowledge in 21 localities of the three regions (Zhob, D. I. Khan and Mianwali) were conducted. Findings of the study were quantitatively analyzed through the informant consensus factors to identify the homogeneity information provided by the informants. Furthermore, cross‐culture consensuses were analyzed and recorded data were represented in a tabulated and Venn diagrams. In particularly, 59 species of plants were documented in the comparative analysis. Among them, 32 plant species were recorded in Pashto community, while Punjabi and Sarakai communities exhibited nine and four plant species, respectively. Whereas cross‐cultural analysis showed 14 medicinal plants that were commonly utilized by three different ethnic communities, that indicated low interregional consensus in regard to ethnoveterinary practices of medicinal plants. The current study showed that different communities and ethnic groups sharing some traditional knowledge and cross‐culturally approaches have been reported from traditional uses of plants against livestock's diseases. Therefore, current findings are the opportunities to scrutinize the plants for the discovery of new drug sources for humans and animals.


INTRODUCTION
Since the mankind's existence, natural systems of plant-based products have offered a continuous viable source of medicine and their applications have been preserved through the usage of traditional medicines (Lev, 2003;Phillipson and Anderson, 1989). Traditional human populations have access to a vast natural wealth of plant and animal species (Alves and Rosa, 2005;Alves and Rosa, 2007). Medicinal plants have been used as a source of medicine in all ethnic cultures (Agra et al., 2007;Alves et al., 2009;Yineger et al., 2007). The plant-based products are not only used for medical purposes to cure human diseases, but these products can also be used for the treatment of livestock diseases (Barboza et al., 2007;Pradhan and Badola, 2008). This is a comprehensive field that involves the knowledge, skills, practices and people's beliefs about veterinary health care (Tamboura et al., 2000). It employs diverse elements including animals, minerals, plants and folk medicine in various communities (McCorkle and Mathias-Mundy, 1992).
In recent times, herbal medications got more attention worldwide due to minimum/low-risk factors caused by the synthetic drugs.
Moreover, plant-based veterinary medicines or formulations are much cheaper (Raza et al., 2014). Although, some communities in modern society are unable to access veterinary practices. In such situation/cases ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) plays an important role in various communities and areas of the world. The modern drugs derived from plant-based materials have been used traditionally for the treatment of humans and animals. Further investigation, on the other hand, may lead to the identification of new possible EVM results (Ali-Shtayeh et al., 2016;Getachew et al., 2012;Rates, 2001;Zorloni et al., 2010). Despite this, the traditional knowledge of ethnoveterinary remediation has been practiced all over the world, although the process of researching, recording and commercialization of this knowledge is still hidden behind the ethnomedicine. However, current documentation process of the ethnomedicine has shown progression in the worldwide (Aziz et al., 2020). Thus, several studies have been conducted on the ethnoveterinary investigations and use of plants in livestock from other regions of Pakistan (Abbasi et al., 2013;Aziz et al., 2018;Mussarat et al., 2014). The plant-based ethnoveterinary herbal medicine is one of the alternatives and most sustainable approaches that easily adapted to rural livestock for the treatment of animal diseases in Pakistan. It has been serving as a treatment purpose for several years in the lack of modern veterinary practices (Ashall et al., 2018). Community members gave traditional knowledge of herbal medication services to their community with minimum cost or some time free of charge. However, communication and exchange of traditional knowledge between various ethnic communities are stumpy and sometimes traditional healers can only transfer knowledge to one son or pass away without transmitting their knowledge to anyone else. This condition is coupled with the fact that the awareness of ethnomedicine is at risk because no resources are available for younger generations.
The key explanation is that local people, especially those of younger generations, are not interested in the traditional knowledge of ethnomedicinal plants (Amjad et al., 2020;Aziz et al., 2018;Smylie et al., 2014). For that reason, ethnoveterinary medicinal knowledge may be lost soon unless researchers organize the information and pass it from one generation to other generation (Aziz et al., 2018). The country's livestock population is very extensive, consisting of a variety of native varieties that are well adapted to local conditions. In particular, there are an estimated 30 million cattle, 54 million goats, 27 million sheep, 01 million camels, 27 million buffaloes, 0.3 million horses, 0.2 million mules, 4 million asses and 74 million poultry in Pakistan (Hasnain and Usmani, 2006 Therefore, Pashto is used as the mother language (96%) in the district Zhob while fewer people are found in that area who speak Saraiki (1.8%) and Punjabi (1.77%).

Documentation of indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge
The study was conducted from August 2017 to March 2019 using the protocol for the gathering of ethnobotanical data (Alexiades and Sheldon, 1996). Ethnobotanical surveys were conducted in 21 differ- Data on traditional ethnobotanical use were collected from three different ethnic communities (Saraiki, Punjabi and Pashtun). The surveys followed the pattern structured with semi-structure interviews (Martin, 1995). The project objectives and procedures were clearly explained in the local language. A total of 83 interviews were conducted in the indigenous languages of Pashto, Saraiki and Punjabi because the studied area consists of three regions such as Zhob where native people spoke Pashto, D. I. Khan Saraiki and in Mianwali mostly people speak Punjabi language. We maintained a relationship with the native people of ethnic communities regarding to develop a sense of trust and allowed to stay within the foothill village squares. After that, we accompanied the inhabitants during their day-to-day activities and to contribute to their ceremonies.  (Nasir and Ali, 1970). The specimens were deposited in Herbarium (ISL) for future reference.

Fidelity level
The fidelity level (FL) is useful in identifying the most common key informant species used to treat specific conditions. The FL value of medicinal plants used in the area is higher than that of less popular plants. The proportion of informants who claim to use the same plant species in the same way is represented by the level of fidelity.
The goal is to quantify the species' significance for a particular purpose. All reported complaints are classified into main classes before the FL values are calculated (Alexiades and Sheldon, 1996;Friedman et al., 1986), The fidelity level index was calculated using the following formula: where N p is the number of people who said they used a specific plant for a specific illness category and N is the total number of people who said they used the plant for any ailment category. A higher FL value implies that the plant species is important and used frequently by the informants in the study area to treat a certain condition.

Informant consensus factor
The informant consensus factor (FIC) was utilized to identify plants of specific cultural importance and agreement in the usage of plants for the examination of general plant use. The FIC was used to assess the level of agreement between respondents from the study area and the use of plant species for various disease categories (Vitalini et al., 2009) and was calculated by the following formula (Heinrich et al., 1998;Singh et al., 2012).
where Nur is the number of use citations for a certain disease category and Nt is the total number of botanical species utilized by all informants for a specific use category.

Demographic data of informants
In the current study, 83 people were interviewed in 21 different loca-
M. nigra is utilized for foot and mouth ulcers, Anaplasmosis, fever, dysentery in Saraiki community, while in the Punjabi community it is recorded for increasing lactation and in Pashto community used for blood clotting, bloating, respiratory disorders and trypanosomiasis.
Several other studies have been reported that M. nigra is used for throat inflammation cough, cold and constipation in other regions of Pakistan (Aziz et al., 2018;Tariq et al., 2014). Fruit and root of Z. oxyphylla were extensively used as urinary disorders in Punjabi community, in Saraiki community used for dermatological problems, blood clotting and colds; while in Pashto community its use was recorded against retention of placenta, mange and helminthiasis. The ethnic Pashto community considers the leaves of C. procera useful in respiratory disorders, anthrax, bone fractures and in Punjabi community it is used for scabies, poison (snake and worm bites), anaplasmosis, mastitis, helminthiasis, while in the residents of Saraiki community used for retention of Placenta.
A. nilotica is used for helminthiasis, foot and mouth ulcers in Saraiki community and Punjabi community used for anaplasmosis while in Pashto communities used for constipation, dysentery, gastric problems and indigestion. W. coagulans is given for the retention of placenta, indigestion, dermatological problems in Pashto community and Punjabi community is used for gastric problems, bone fracture, while in Saraiki community it is reported for the treatment of fever. C. jwarancusa is widely used in Pashto community for fever, poison (snake and worm bite) and in Punjabi community, it is used for blood clotting while it is used only for gastric problems in Saraiki community as shown in Table 1. This is probably because of the lack of agreement between three ethnic communities in ethno-veterinary medicinal plants or because of unique vegetation and different socio-cultural values.
Similar research have found that ethnic communities employ different plants due to differences in cultural/ ethnicity and ecology/geography (Aziz et al., 2020).

Dominant plant families used as ethnoveterinary medicine
Asteraceae and Fabaceae families have been reported at first rank from three ethnic communities while Poaceae and Polygonaceae as the least utilized families recorded as depicted. Similar results have also been reported by previous studies that Asteraceae was the second dominant family. The Asteraceae were the predominant family due to the wildly distributed species in the area (Fortini et al., 2016;Güzel et (Abdalla and Zidorn, 2020;Koc et al., 2015;Obakiro et al., 2021;Surendran et al., 2021)

Plant parts used and modes of preparation
Herbal recipes were prepared using various plant parts in the study area. As shown in Figure 5, leaves were the most preferred plant parts used in the preparation of traditional veterinary medicine followed by fruits, whole plant, aerial parts, roots, flower and the stem. The rhizome, latex shoots, seeds, gum, bark and pods were the least parts used in the preparation ( Figure 5). The key process of herbal remedy preparation for the cure of malaria was decoction (79%). These findings were consistent with previously reported studies from Pakistan and other countries (Asase et al., 2010;Kankara et al., 2015;Koudouvo et al., 2011;Nguta et al., 2010). Additionally, the usage of leaves is considered as less hazardous for the plants in comparison to the use of other parts (bark) and whole plants. Similar results were also reported by a previous study (Yetein et al., 2013). The most common method of  (Aziz et al., 2020). In addition, the respondents also employed preparation of decoction (19), juice (18), paste (14), extract (11), infusion (9), eaten raw form (8), poultice (2), as food (1) (Figure 6).  (Nwafor et al., 2017;Waugh et al., 1998). In addition, aerial parts of C. intybus were also traditionally used for the treatment of stomach problems and used to maintain body heat (Lans et al., 2006;Lans et al., 2007). A. javanica was used for skin infection (Abbasi et al., 2013). The leaves of M. nigra were used for antiinflammatory (Manganelli et al., 2001). T. ammi was reported for cold and cough (Yadav et al., 2014), blot, anorexia, pneumonia, abdominal pain (Phondani et al., 2010), appetite stimulant, galactagogue (Abbasi et al., 2013). The latex of Calotropis procera is used to treat with inflammation (Kumar and Roy, 2007), dermal problems and poison (snake bite) (Jain et al., 1996). Withania coagulans is used as carminative, eliminate flatulence (Khattak et al., 2015), body coolness, abdominal pain, external wounds, sunstroke, jaundice, skeleton-muscular pain aliments (Ahmad et al., 2015), trypanosomiasis (Raziq et al., 2010), digestive disorders (Muhammad et al., 2005), diarrhoea .
Culture and ethnicity have a strong impact on traditional ethnoveterinary medicine systems (Aziz et al., 2018). By comparing the medicinal plant species used nowadays in Sardinia and Sicily with those reported in old texts and found that 74% of the uses were similar to those reported previously (Leonti et al., 2009)

Quantitative analysis of the data
The collected data was quantitatively analysed by informant consensus factor and fidelity level.  (Aziz et al., 2018;Muhammad et al., 2005).

CONCLUSIONS
According to our best knowledge, this study revealed for the first