Ethnomedicinal study of medicinal plants used to cure dental diseases by the indigenous population of district Buner, Pakistan

Abstract

This is the first study of its own kind conducted with the aim to document and conserve the ethnomedicinal knowledge of plants used to cure dental diseases in Buner, Pakistan and to provide starting point for future pharmacological studies about new herbal drugs used for dental disorders. Several field trips were conducted in 2018-19 to collect indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants. A semi-structured questionnaire was used as tool for data collection in individual and group interviews and informants were selected by snowball sampling. In this study 935 men and 323 women were interviewed, yielding 55 plant species belonging to 34 families. Lamiaceae and Solanaceae were the dominant plant families used and the main life forms used were herbs (28 species). Leaves were the most used part (19 species). The local population was found to be sensitive and careful about oral hygiene and had rich ethnomedicinal knowledge.