Sherpa community are the oldest ethnic groups of Himalayas and chiefly known for their ability to climb mountains and their knowledge on medicinal plants found in the high Himalayas. The main objective of this study was to document the medicinal plants available for trade-in Itahari. The study reported 40 species of medicinal plants belonging to 34 families from an interview with twelve herbal traders. The habit of the medicinal plant recorded were herbs (53%), trees (20%), shrubs (13%), vines (8%), fungus (5%), and lichen (3%). Herbal medicines were mostly found for curing minor diseases like cuts, wounds to major diseases like jaundice, typhoid, and also cancer. The knowledge of ethnomedicinal plants has been preserved from ancestors to ancestors, is still in existence and are also spreading towards their younger generations. Furthermore, More researches should be done to access the medicinal plants traded across the country and also their conservation strategy followed by the ethnic community during the collection of medicinal plants.

Keywords: cross-cultural traditions, ethnomedicinal plants, lichen, sherpa, zimbu

Nepal is one of the richest countries in terms of biodiversity and species richness and its relation to culture and traditions. The main reason for the higher diversity of flora, fauna, ecosystems, and cultural heritage is due to its higher variations in physiographic structures.¹ There's a close relation observed between humans and nature which is sharpened and highlighted by ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal studies. Traditional use of plants in the healing system plays an important role in maintaining the physical and psychological wellbeing of the vast majority of tribal people in India and Nepal.^2,3 Traditional medicine includes all kinds of folk medicine, unconventional medicine, and indeed any kind of therapeutic method that had been approved by ethnic groups.

The knowledge regarding the use of medicinal plants has been passed from generation to generations and only a specific group knows about the details of it.^4,5 Since all of the communities of Nepal do not have access to modern medicines, knowledge of ethnomedicine plays a vital role in saving lives and is also not harmful to health.⁶ Also in areas where people have access to modern medicinal facilities but trading of the medicinal plant has been observed for use in minor diseases like cough, cold, cuts, and burns.⁷

For the first time in Nepal, an effort for a handwritten book to compile traditional knowledge towards medicinal plants was done by Pandit Ghana Nath Devkota in 1969 in herbal Encyclopedia Bir Nighantu or Bir pharmacopeia which included 750 medicinal plants with their possible uses.⁸ Eastern Nepal and its medicinal plants were firstly explored by.⁹ Different researchers from Nepal have reported diversity of species used for the medicinal purpose with ethnomedicinal knowledge. Kunwar et al.¹⁰ reported 107 species from Dolpa, 59 from Humla, 44 from Jumla, and 166 from Mustang. Similarly, 35 genera of the medicinal plant were reported from streets of Kathmandu for trading,⁷ from Kaski 99 genera of ethnomedicinal plants were recorded by,¹¹ from Illam 102 species were reported,¹² from baitadi 33 species were reported,⁶ from Chitwan 44 medicinal plants were reported.¹³ Similarly, the species reported were used for curing of various ailments from minor to major diseases and 80% of the Nepalese population are dependent on it.¹⁰

The record of medicinal plants brought for sale in different parts of countries from the Hindu Kush Himalayan regions is not recorded. An effort has been made to record the medicinal plant brought for sale in eastern Nepal. Itahari municipality is selected for data collection as the intensity of herbal traders was high and more aged and experienced traders were spotted in the study area. Thus, this paper is designed to get access to medicinal plants traded in the streets of Itahari and their uses for medicinal purposes by the ethnic community of sherpas.

Study area

Itahari sub-metropolitan municipality is taken as a study area where many herbal traders are found on streets selling medicinal plants and products. Itahari is the junction area of province no.1 which might be the cause why there is a high density of herbal traders and almost all the traders are ethnic Sherpa community from Taplejung. Taplejung is the core area for the collection of medicinal and aromatic plants in province 1.¹⁴

Research design and data collection

A simple interview was scheduled with twelve herbal traders who were native to Taplejung and were from the Sherpa community, as they have old ancestry to the collection of medicinal plants. The survey period lasted from 21^st January – 5^th of February (2020) completed in two stages. Data collection was done using semi-structured questionnaires prepared as per the requirement for the survey to record the information related to medicinal plants and their uses. The collected data was entered in Microsoft excel and tables were prepared in Microsoft Word. The cross-sectional study was done to support the medicinal uses and secondary information about uses of medicinal plants was obtained from different works of literature including national and international open access journals, websites, conference proceedings, and newspaper bulletins. For the identification of plants from local name literature cited were.^7,10,14-16

Data analysis

Data analysis includes a descriptive analysis of medicinal plants with their growth habit, plant parts used, and family. To present error-free data SPSS v.20 was used for analysis as suggested by¹⁷ in social science researches. Charts were prepared using Microsoft Excel and SPSS.

The diversity of medicinal plants recorded were found to be used for curing more than one disease. As per the species plant parts used and application procedure were also different. Some of the medicinal plants were used as a paste applied externally, some were fine powdered and inhaled with lukewarm water or milk, chewing as of areca nut was also observed and extracts were prepared and infiltered by muslin cloth. Acharya et al.,¹⁷ also reported that the medicinal plant traded in Kathmandu valley was applied and consumed in a variety of ways. Also, the recommended dosage and application procedures were found to be different among the traders. The main reason for differences in dosage is due to the practices of medicinal plants by different ethnic communities and their knowledge of it.

The diversity of medicinal plant recorded are mainly collected from taplejung district and also the traders are from the Sherpa community of taplejung whose family are involved in the collection of medicinal plants from ancestors to ancestors. Of those recorded 40 species belonging to 34 families, most of them are herbaceous plants (53%) followed by a tree (20%), shrub (13%), vines (8%), fungus (5%) and lichen (3%) (Figure 1). Also, differences in edible parts for the medicinal purpose was recorded roots and fruits were used in medicinal purpose in most of the plants, flowers, vegetative parts, and tender shoots were also used for medicinal formulations, details of the plant part used for medicinal plant parts used (Figure 2) and their procedure is shown in Table 1.

Figure 1 Habit of medicinal plants.

Figure 2 Plants parts used for medicinal purposes.

A similar type of findings was recorded by Shrestha et al.¹⁵ in the Taplejung district. Though the sampling technique and data collection method were different, the reason for the similarity in uses may be due to being a similar collection area. The higher diversity of herbs in alpine and sub-alpine regions has been reported by Chaudhary ¹. Shrestha et al.,¹⁵ reported that the reason for exploring the medicinal plants by the peoples is due to their less access to transportation and other facilities by then they started exploring plants for the medicinal plants. Their contributions to ethnomedicinal uses is an outcome of many years. Shrestha’s findings were further also supported by Kunwar et al.,¹⁰, Rokaya et al. (2010) in the alpine and sub-alpine vegetation of Nepal.^18-22

The majority of medicinal plants found in the streets of itahari for trade are used to cure minor diseases like cuts, wounds, cough, fever, and the common cold. Very few of them were reported to cure major diseases like typhoid, jaundice, tonsillitis, bone injury, cancer, high blood pressure, heart problems, pneumonia, and stomach disorders. However, few of them also reported to have nutritive value for pregnant women, tonics and also as spices, though, being used as a medicinal plant. Thapa et al.,⁶ also reported that most of the plant species collected from home gardens of baitadi were collected to cure minor diseases. Different authors and ethnobotanists have observed the use of medicinal plants for several diseases; the attitude of practice is more or less similar between different ethnic communities. This may be due to cross-cultural tradition in the use of medicinal plants.³ The knowledge on the use of plants for a medicinal purpose has been flowing form north.³ Though ethnomedicinal knowledge practices from ancestors to ancestors have been carried out modern studies on plants used for medicinal purposes were found to contain phytochemicals which helped in curing of diseases. Ban ghiraula is the newly reported medicinal plant and literature regarding its use in an ethnomedicinal plant is lacking. However, phytochemical screening revealed that its use for medicinal use is appropriate as it contains various phytochemicals such as Phenolics, lavonoids, oleanolic acid, ascorbic acid, a-tocopherol, carotenoids, chlorophylls, triterpenoids, and ribosome-inactivating proteins. These phytochemicals have significant relation with medicinal uses.² Thus more researches should be done to access the phytochemicals present in medicinal plants and promoting their uses as they are less or no harmful for human health.

Ethnomedicinal plants are highly important from both economic and health perspective. Different communities of people were found to use different plants for medicinal uses. Among them, sherpas are one of the important herbal traders from eastern Nepal and are involved in the collection and trade of various medicinal plants. Streets of itahari are rarely covered by herbal traders from taplejung who are the ethnic community trading medicinal plants along with their dosage. 40 species of medicinal plants belonging to 34 families were reported and found to use for cuts, wounds, fever, jaundice, cancer, aid in digestion, as tonics, laxative, teeth pain, joining of bones, ringworms, fungal infections, for pregnants and so on. Their response regarding the collection of medicinal plants is done on a seasonal basis and also the trading too. Zimbu is the newly reported plant with ethnomedicinal uses and hence more researches should be conducted regarding its medicinal uses.

Sandesh Thapa is an undergraduate of agriculture and studying in Tribhuvan University. His research interest lies in ethnomedicinal plants and their economic analysis, urban ecosystem, life cycle assessment and rooftop garden. Currently, he is serving as a local director of IAAS LC GAASC, Baitadi, a student association works in the field of agriculture and other applied sciences. Susmita Thapa is an undergraduate of agriculture and studying in Tribhuvan University. Her research interest lies in ethnobotany, urban ecosystem, and agri-economics.

Authors do not have any type of competing interests.

The authors do not receive any fundings during the research period.

None.

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