Sustainability Issues in Conservation of Traditional Medicinal Herbs and Their Associated Knowledge: A Case Study of District Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan

Shabnum Shaheen, Nidaa Harun (), Raina Ijaz, Naila Mukhtar, Muhammad Ashfaq, Fozia Bibi, Muhammad Ali, Zaheer Abbas () and Zaryab Khalid
Additional contact information
Shabnum Shaheen: Department of Botany, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Nidaa Harun: Department of Botany, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Okara, Okara 56130, Pakistan
Raina Ijaz: Department of Horticulture, University of Poonch Rawalakot, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 12350, Pakistan
Naila Mukhtar: Department of Botany, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Okara, Okara 56130, Pakistan
Muhammad Ashfaq: Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan
Fozia Bibi: Department of Botany, Rawalpindi Women University, Rawalpindi 46300, Pakistan
Muhammad Ali: Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, New Campus, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan
Zaheer Abbas: Department of Botany, Division of Science and Technology, University of Education, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Zaryab Khalid: Department of Botany, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-26

Abstract: Due to modernization and urbanization, traditional medicinal herbs and their associated knoweldge are under peril of being lost. The current study not only aimed to document the trend of herbal medicinal plant uitlization in District Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, but also raised alarming concerns about the conservation of these medicinal herbs and traditional knowledge linked to them. The data were collected from local people, herbalists, and gardeners by using standard ethnobotanical methods, i.e., questionnaires and interviews. Results reported that a lower number of informants possessed medicinal herb knowledge and reported only 50 medicinal herbs from the study area. This is probably due to the impact of speedy industrilaization and alterations in human life patterns in the study area. Not only the traditional knowledge is under threat but also the medicinal herbs themselves. Most of the reported medicinal herbs were rare (45.10%), while only few (9.80%) were ranked as abundant in the study area. The herbs with more medicinal importance are mostly rare. This is because of their over usage by the local people. Both conservation approaches (in situ and ex situ conservation and cultivation practices) and resource management (good agricultural practices and sustainable use solutions) should be adequately taken into account for the sustainable use of medicinal plant resources.

Keywords: impact of modernization and urbanization; traditional knowledge; rare herbs; abundant herbs; medicinal herbs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7343/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7343/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:7343-:d:1135454

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().