Plant-based veterinary practices in Jammu and Kashmir: A review of the trends, transfer and conservation of traditional ethnoveterinary knowledge

Abstract

Background: Traditional veterinary phytotherapy refers to the use of plants for promoting health and curing diseases of livestock. Animal rearing is the major occupation of the tribal communities in Jammu and Kashmir and is thus an important part of their economy. Due to the inaccessibility of modern facilities and allopathic drugs, these communities mainly rely on the local flora to cure common ailments prevalent in livestock, developing a rich knowledge of ethnoveterinary practices. These practices are still prevalent despite the advent of modern allopathic drugs as they are easily accessible, effective, and economic. To date, a plethora of studies have been carried out on ethnoveterinary plants in different regions of India, however few of these are available in Jammu and Kashmir itself. The aim of this review was to collate and analyze the traditional phyto-remedies against livestock ailments in Jammu and Kashmir.Methods: An extensive review of the published literature was carried out using various online databases like Academia, Google Scholar, PubMed, Researchgate, Sci-Finder, Scopus, Science direct, and other allied published literature.Results: A total of 18 research articles from the year 1989-2021 were selected which were exclusively related to the ethnoveterinary importance of plants. It was found that Jammu province was explored more as compared to Kashmir, as 10 studies were exclusively done from Jammu province and major attention was given to the ailments of cattle, sheep, and goats. Conclusion:The present review indicates that the medicinal plants reported need detailed biochemical assays to ascertain their therapeutical profiles that can contribute to the discovery of novel compounds to the existing drug pool. The integration of the reported plants into the biodiversity registers and promotion of this traditional heritage by the concerned government institutions and stakeholders involved in conservation is the utmost need of the hour which will ultimately result in the conservation of both the traditional knowledge and biodiversity.

Documentation of ethnoveterinary knowledge: Harnessing potential phytotherapy in high mountainous areas of Paddar, District Kishtwar (India)

“…For ethnoveterinary uses, the local people of Paddar prepared different herbal formulations, including powder, raw, paste, and oil (Table 2). Similar use of such formulations for ethnoveterinary purposes has been reported from J&K (Khateeb et al 2015;Dutta et al 2022;Hassan et al 2022), and other Himalayan regions (Ali et al 2019;Prakash et al 2021).…”

Documenting potential ethnoveterinary knowledge from the indigenous communities of Cold Desert of Ladakh: A trans-Himalayan region of India

“…was used to treat alopecia and hair tonic in the present study. In contrast, the people in the Kathua and Rajouri districts of Jammu & Kashmir used raw and powder forms of seed and root to treat pneumonia, food poisoning, blood in stool & urine, and as an appetizer (Sharma & Manhas 2015;Sharma et al 2012;Dutta et al 2022). The whole plant of Ephedra gerardiana to treat cough in the present study is similar to the study conducted on Trans-Himalayan migratory shepherds in the Kannur district of Himachal Pradesh-India (Radha et al 2020).…”

“…Furthermore, the area is generally referred as a " cold desert" (Gairola et al 2014) and is characterized by extreme weather conditions, marked water scarcity, short vegetation periods, and scattered vegetation, which are confined to small pockets (Ballabh et al 2008) Asteraceae and Fabaceae were the dominant families in the present study. The dominant use of plant species of these two families for ethnoveterinary purposes has also been previously reported from Jammu and Kashmir (Singh et al 2022;Dutta et al 2022). Other studies conducted in Western Himalayan regions have also reported wider utilization of Asteraceae plants in ethnoveterinary ailments (Ahmad et al 2017;Ahmed & Murtaza 2015;Wani et al 2022).…”

“…In the present study, the whole plant of Artemisia absinthium in the form of paste was used to treat the wounds of animals. However, the juices of aerial parts, leaves and the whole plants of Artemisia absinthium L. is used as a remedy against abdominal worms, anthelminthic, liver infection and as an appetizer in livestock (Dutta et al 2022). In India's Kashmir Himalayan region and Pakistan's South Waziristan region, the whole plant of Artemisia absinthium was used as an anthelmintic agent (Ahmad et al 2017;Aziz et al 2018a).…”