A number of indigenous communities reside in the Himalayan belt of Baramulla, where the lack of modern health care facilities represents crucial problems to their survival. Therefore the current study was aimed at documenting traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in the region. Ethnomedicinal data was collected during 2018-2020. Fifty-one informants were interviewed in seventeen villages via questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and group discussions. Data was also analyzed by various ethnobotanical indices. A total of 85 plant species distributed in 40 families were documented. Asteraceae was reported to be the dominant plant family and leaves were the most frequently utilized plant part. Musculoskeletal disorder scored the highest ICF value (0.87). Colchicum luteum (0.61), Verbascum thapsus (0.59) reported highest UV and Viola odorata, Ajuga integrifolia had the highest FL of 100%. Of the documented species about 18 plants (21%) were reported for the first time to be used in the area. Medicinal plants still play an important role in the healthcare sector and the folk knowledge attached to them is remarkable in the region, although declining among the younger generations. Medicinal plants reported for the first time, needs to be studied pharmacologically.

Data collection 

A number of field surveys were conducted during June 2018 to December 2020 to collect the primary data regarding the study. To conduct this research a prior permission was sought from the respected committees (approval provided by RDC committee of the university in the form of doctoral research) of Jiwaji University, Gwalior (16/2018 dated 23nd July 2018). For documenting folk knowledge of ethnic people about plants from study area, the college doesn't need ethical approval according to norms of our state since the study has not involved any animal usage. The help acquired from the ethnic people of study area for documentation of medicinal uses was duly acknowledged. Field methods for undertaking ethnopharmacological studies as well as most of recommendations as suggested by Heinrich et al. (2018) were followed and incorporated in this study.

The informants were selected on the basis of information regarding the use of medicinal plants. Informants were interviewed through different types of interview methods including semi-structured interviews and group discussions by using standard questionnaire (Appendix I) (Martin 1995). Prior to interviews the objective of the study was explained to participants taking part in the study. The information was collected in the local language and was then translated to English language. Prior consent was taken from participants to make it possible to share their knowledge regarding the indigenous use of medicinal plants for the treatment of various ailments, cause and symptoms of the ailments they used to treat, local names of the medicinally important plant species, plant parts used in the preparation of herbal remedy and mode of application of the particular remedy used in the treatment. Informants were given time as per their convenience to answer the questions. During the survey we have followed two methods. First method was the specimen display method in which fresh plant materials were showed to informants to gather medicinal information and the same plant was shown to other informants to confirm accuracy of data for a particular plant. In second method of survey, some of the field walks (Martin 1995, Maundu 1995) were also followed with local knowledgeable informants. Guided field walk to the forest area allowed us to collect best possible information about the identification and utilization of important medicinal plant species. To check the confirmation and consistency of formulations, each informant was interviewed more than once. Furthermore, primary data were also compared with some of the high quality papers published from adjoining areas of Northwestern Himalaya including Kashmir valley to check the similarity of the study.

This research contains a single data set in excel spreadsheet containing the information related the number of families, genera and the percentage of the plant species in each family reported from the study region.