Harnessing the application of halophytic flora biomass in the management of healthcare of local people in the Salt Range of Punjab.

The dependence of rural communities on salt-tolerant medicinal plants provides practical evidence of their utilization in healthcare systems in Salt ranges. Ethnomedicinal data were collected and documented by interrogating 138 local people and 13 traditional health practitioners using a visual appraisal approach, semi-structured interviews, rapid rural appraisal methods, and open-ended questionnaires, separately for each species and interviewee, in different localities of the Salt Range. Data was scrutinized quantitatively utilizing multiple quantitative indices, including frequency citation, use value (UV), informant consensus factor (ICF), and relative frequency of citation (RFC). The ethnomedicinal practices of 38 halophytes from 23 families were reported. Herbs (50%) were the leading life form. The findings reported Fabaceae as the dominant family with 5 species and Vachellia nilotica as a highly cited medicinal plant by respondents. Leaf (37%) was the most utilized plant fragment in herbal provisions, with 24 reports. Statistical analysis such as ICF exhibited a high value for the gastrointestinal disease category (0.62). The values of RFC and UV ranged from 0.22 to 0.48 and 0.08 to 0.7, respectively. Phytochemical evaluation indicates the strong pharmacological potential of these studied medicinal plants for drug development. Nageia wallichiana and Vachellia nilotica were threatened species and needed reclamation measures for their conservation. The sustainable utilization of medicinal flora requires proper conservation approaches because this is the primary healthcare source for rural communities in the Salt range. This study recommends sustainable ethnomedicinal utilization of Salt range flora and their conservation for an eco-friendly and green environment.