2013, Vol. 1, Issue 4, Part B

author(s)
Rehman Ullah Khan, Sultan Mehmood, Saad Ullah Khan, Farheen Jaffar

abstract
The present research work deals with preliminary contribution to ethnobotany of food value flora of the districtrnBannu in the weather of winter 2012. As a whole 50 food value plants belonging to 22 families were collected,rndocumented and preserved in the herbarium of Bannu Department of Botany UST, Bannu. The plants werernidentified botanically, arranged alphabetically along with their systematic Position including family names, localrnnames, English names, part used, flowering seasons, methods of applications of their parts and medicinalrnimportance. Most of plants belong to family Cucurbitaceae (8Spp), Poaceae (5Spp), Papilionaceae (5Spp), whilernApiaceae, and Rutaceae has three species each. These plants are mostly used for curing some common diseases suchrnas, diarrhorea, dysentery, gastric ulcer, intestinal worms, abdomen pain, fever, malaria, cough, bronchitis, asthma,rnheadache, toothache, wounds and sores, skin diseases, snake bite and some other diseases. The local inhabitants arernignorant and had little knowledge about the medicinal value of these plant and proper time of collection. Youngerrngeneration is forgetting about indigenous knowledge of various medicinal plants, but the old people especiallyrnwoman still possess knowledge about the wild resources. A survey conducted shows that medicinal plants collectorsrninclude women folk (48.26%), men folk (27.0%) and children (24.74%). Almost 90% of these medicinal plants arernsold in the local market in fresh form as the collectors are poor and needy. The vegetation of the area is under highrnbiotic pressure such as overgrazing. Ruthless collection of medicinal plants had threatened their existence and morernplants are becoming vulnerable due to the destruction of their habitat. Eriobtry japonica Lindley and Eugeniarnjambolana Lam are rare plants. There is a dire need of careful conservation of the endemic plant resources of thernregion otherwise many plants may be lost forever and become extinct.