Ethnogynecological study of traditional therapeutic plants used by the indigenous communities: A case study from District Gujrat Punjab, Pakistan

Background: The present study aimed to evaluate the indigenous knowledge and use of medicinal plant species to treat different gynecological diseases by local people. Indigenous people use medicinal plants to treat various gynecological disorders. Methods: Ethnomedicinal data was collected from 110 randomly selected local informants through semi-structured questionnaires as well as face-to-face interviews. These data was quantitatively analyzed using various ethnobotanical indices such as family importance value, relative frequency of citation, use value (UV), fidelity level (FL), informant consensus factor (ICF), Jaccard index (JI), and ANOVA. Results: A total of 59 plant species belonging to 24 families were recorded which were used to treat various 40 gynecological disorders. The informants documented the maximum number of plants used for irregular menstruation (15 spp.), followed by leucorrhea (11 spp.), gonorrhea (7 spp.), and abortion (5 spp.). The dominant family was Apiaceae (5 species). The dominant growth form was herbs (57.63%), while the common plant part used in remedies preparation was leaves (26%). Most people use medicinal plants in the form of extract (25 %), followed by decoction (17 %). The plant species with maximum use value was recorded for Ricinus communis (0.97), followed by Mentha viridis (0.96), while the highest RFC value was reported for Cuminum cyminum (0.69). The maximum ICF value was reported for vomiting, emmenagogue, and sexual issues (0.99%). Conclusion: This is the first-ever quantitative study focusing mainly on ethnoecological uses of medicinal plants from the district Gujrat, which emphasize the significance of traditional herbal plant remedies used for primary health care needs. The results of this study would serve as a baseline for advanced pharmacological and phytochemical screening pertaining to gynecological disorder. Keywords: Medicinal plants, gynecological disorders, Traditional knowledge, fidelity level; Gujrat, Pakistan