Exploration of medicinal phyto-diversity at makran coast; a realm of opportunities and challenges

Pakistan has been endowed with marvelous diversity of potentially therapeutic plants. makran region is largely comprised of hills along with barren land. unequivocally,medicinal plants are appreciably utilized by the local communities. these medicinal plants not only used for specific diseases as well as used in combination with other herbal medicinal plants. due to over exploitation of area,unplanned developmental works and deteriorating law and order situation,wild flora of this district is threatened. this is the foremost report of its nature from this area. this research presents traditional knowledge on medicinal plants usage cum belief as medicine by native population of gawadar. by adopting standard methods i.e. questionnaire,field visits,interviews etc. data was collected. statistical tool,fic and fl values were calculated to analyze the gathered information for evaluation of knowledge about importance of diverse medicinal plants. plant species reported in this area are commonly practiced for multifarious purposes e.g. herbal drugs,fodder,wood and essential oils etc. chief plant habit observed was shrubs. plants and their parts such as roots,stem,leaves,wood,flowers,bark,seeds,latex and fruits are in common use for various purposes. as per calculated fic,it is evident that category gastro-intestinal problems with fic values 0.897 carried highest degree of agreement by informants. highest fl was noted in calotropis procera (87 %) followed by indigofera oblongifolia (78 %). © 2017,pakistan botanical society. all rights reserved.