New ethnomedicinal claims from <em>Magar</em> community of Palpa district, Nepal

Abstract

The aim of present study was to identify medicinal plant species used for the management of healthcare problems prevalent among the <em>Magar</em> tribal community of Palpa district, Nepal. Data about medicinal uses of plants were collected by questionnaire, personal interview and group discussion with pre-identified informants. The present study includes a total of 171 new ethnomedicinal claims for 70 plant species from Nepal. <em>Magar</em> tribes used these species in the treatment of 104 different ailments of human being. Use Value (UV), Fidelity level (FL), Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) and Factor of Informants Consensus (Fic) were used for identification of the popularity level, efficiency medicinal importance of the plants among the community. In the study area, the informants' consensus about usages of medicinal plants ranges from 0.4 to 0.76 with an average value of 0.7. Only 8.6 % of the ethnomedicines are from cultivation and rest 91.4 % from wild resources. While study we have identified twenty of the popular medicinal plants used by <em>Magar</em> tribes, which are not scientifically evaluated so far for their claimed ethnomedicinal uses. These species may be used in phytochemical and pharmacological investigations in future.