Ethnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern Iran

Abstract The purpose of this study was to gather ethnopharmacological information on plants used by the pastorals of southeastern Iran. The relationships between ecological value of the plant species and ethnobotanical indices were investigated. The loss of medicinal plants and its effective factors...

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Autores principales:	Mohsen Sharafatmandrad, Azam Khosravi Mashizi
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2020
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6ed508e8819141a4b31e1bf5202d51d6
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6ed508e8819141a4b31e1bf5202d51d62021-12-02T18:48:22ZEthnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern Iran10.1038/s41598-020-72536-z2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/6ed508e8819141a4b31e1bf5202d51d62020-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72536-zhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The purpose of this study was to gather ethnopharmacological information on plants used by the pastorals of southeastern Iran. The relationships between ecological value of the plant species and ethnobotanical indices were investigated. The loss of medicinal plants and its effective factors were also determined under nomadism and sedentary pastoralism. Ethnopharmacological information of plants was collected through interviews with 85 local people including nomads (43%) and sedentary pastorals (57%). Ethnobotanical indices including relative frequency of citation (RFC), relative importance (RI), cultural value (CV), and use value (UV) were estimated. Canopy cover and density of plant species were measured at 60 sampling plots in the exclosure, nomadic rangelands and sedentary pastorals rangelands. The Importance Value Index (IVI) and Relative Loss Index (RL) were estimated for both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to investigate the relationship between ethnobotanical indices and IVI of plant species. The Bayesian networks was used to investigate the relationship between ethnobotanical indices and plant species loss. In total, 156 medicinal plant species of 50 families were identified in the region by locals. Positive correlation was observed between ethnobotanical indices (RFC and RI) and ecological index (IVI). The mean decline of the ecological importance of medicinal species in sedentary pastoral rangelands was approximately three times higher than in nomadic rangelands. Bayesian networks showed that cultural value, seed exploitation and aerial parts exploitation had direct relationships with species loss in both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands. Bunium persicum, an ecologically and socially important species, had been extensively harvested (more than 60%) in the both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands, making it a priority species in future conservation programs. Medicinal plants had high ecological value and were severely exploited, threatening sustainability of arid and semiarid ecosystems. Local pastorals not only use medicinal plants as herbal remedies but also consider them as a source of income. Popular plants with multiple medicinal uses were more susceptible to loss. Higher medicinal knowledge of pastorals did not help to mitigate medicinal plant loss, requesting new plans to aware them to the circumstances that often leads to species removal from community. Given the importance, abundance and widespread use of medicinal plants, further studies can provide a basis for their conservation and for identifying new therapeutic effects of plants in the region.Mohsen SharafatmandradAzam Khosravi MashiziNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-18 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Mohsen Sharafatmandrad Azam Khosravi Mashizi Ethnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern Iran
description	Abstract The purpose of this study was to gather ethnopharmacological information on plants used by the pastorals of southeastern Iran. The relationships between ecological value of the plant species and ethnobotanical indices were investigated. The loss of medicinal plants and its effective factors were also determined under nomadism and sedentary pastoralism. Ethnopharmacological information of plants was collected through interviews with 85 local people including nomads (43%) and sedentary pastorals (57%). Ethnobotanical indices including relative frequency of citation (RFC), relative importance (RI), cultural value (CV), and use value (UV) were estimated. Canopy cover and density of plant species were measured at 60 sampling plots in the exclosure, nomadic rangelands and sedentary pastorals rangelands. The Importance Value Index (IVI) and Relative Loss Index (RL) were estimated for both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to investigate the relationship between ethnobotanical indices and IVI of plant species. The Bayesian networks was used to investigate the relationship between ethnobotanical indices and plant species loss. In total, 156 medicinal plant species of 50 families were identified in the region by locals. Positive correlation was observed between ethnobotanical indices (RFC and RI) and ecological index (IVI). The mean decline of the ecological importance of medicinal species in sedentary pastoral rangelands was approximately three times higher than in nomadic rangelands. Bayesian networks showed that cultural value, seed exploitation and aerial parts exploitation had direct relationships with species loss in both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands. Bunium persicum, an ecologically and socially important species, had been extensively harvested (more than 60%) in the both nomadic and sedentary pastoral rangelands, making it a priority species in future conservation programs. Medicinal plants had high ecological value and were severely exploited, threatening sustainability of arid and semiarid ecosystems. Local pastorals not only use medicinal plants as herbal remedies but also consider them as a source of income. Popular plants with multiple medicinal uses were more susceptible to loss. Higher medicinal knowledge of pastorals did not help to mitigate medicinal plant loss, requesting new plans to aware them to the circumstances that often leads to species removal from community. Given the importance, abundance and widespread use of medicinal plants, further studies can provide a basis for their conservation and for identifying new therapeutic effects of plants in the region.
format	article
author	Mohsen Sharafatmandrad Azam Khosravi Mashizi
author_facet	Mohsen Sharafatmandrad Azam Khosravi Mashizi
author_sort	Mohsen Sharafatmandrad
title	Ethnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern Iran
title_short	Ethnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern Iran
title_full	Ethnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern Iran
title_fullStr	Ethnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern Iran
title_full_unstemmed	Ethnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern Iran
title_sort	ethnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern iran
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/6ed508e8819141a4b31e1bf5202d51d6
work_keys_str_mv	AT mohsensharafatmandrad ethnopharmacologicalstudyofnativemedicinalplantsandtheimpactofpastoralismontheirlossinaridtosemiaridecosystemsofsoutheasterniran AT azamkhosravimashizi ethnopharmacologicalstudyofnativemedicinalplantsandtheimpactofpastoralismontheirlossinaridtosemiaridecosystemsofsoutheasterniran
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Ethnopharmacological study of native medicinal plants and the impact of pastoralism on their loss in arid to semiarid ecosystems of southeastern Iran

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