ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY KURD TRIBE IN DEHLORAN AND ABDANAN DISTRICTS, ILAM PROVINCE,

This paper provides significant ethnobotanical information on pharmaceutical plant uses, where some degree of acculturation exists, so that there is urgency in recording such data. The aim of this work is to catalogue, document, and make known the uses of plants for folk medicine in Dehloran and Abdanan districts, Ilam Province, Iran. An analysis was made of the species used, parts of the plant employed, preparation methods, administration means, and the ailments treated in relation to pathological groups. A folk botanical survey was carried out from February 2007 to October 2009. The information was collected from 81 persons (60% men and 40% women) in 20 villages. The informants reported data on 122 species, belonging to 49 botanical families, were claimed as medicinal. This work is focused on human medicinal plant uses, which represent 95% of the pharmaceutical uses. The most commonly represented families were Asteraceae (37.5%), Lamiaceae (20.8%), Rosaceae (18.7%), Fabaceae (16.7%) and Apiaceae (14.6%). Some of the uses were found to be new when compared with published literature on ethnomedicine of Iran. The folk knowledge about medicinal plant use is still alive in the studied region, and a number of scarcely reported plant uses has been detected, some of them with promising phytotherapeutical applications. The results of the study reveal that some of species play an important role in primary healthcare system of these tribal communities. healing; Stipa capensis as treatment of nerve system problems and gastric discords; Tamarix ramosissima as treatment of dermal discords, wound healing and sputum ; Thymbra spicata as treatment of cough, antibacterial and carminative; Ulmus glabra as treatment of heart discords and fertility discords; Verbascum alepense as anti-fever, dermal discords and wound healing; Vitex pseudo-negundo as increased milk; Nicotiana tabacum as treatment animal ( Anti-leech and anti- dermatophytosis ).


Introduction
The Ilam province is situated on the west of Iran. This province known as "Thyme land or locally as Sarzamin-e-Avishan" and it is principally a mountainous region with plains following the direction of West Zagros range. It borders Khuzestan province in the south, Lurestan province in the east, Kermanshah province in the north and Iraq in the west with 425 kms of common border (Figure 1). Ilam is located between latitude 31º 58´ to 34º 15´ N and longitude 45º 24´ to 48º 10´ E. It occupies an area of 19,086 km². The elevation range is between 50 m above sea level in the south to 3060 m above sea level in the west province (Kabirkooh Mountain).
The climate of the region is influenced with its varied elevation. Annually, it generally rains 200 mm in the south and 500 mm in the north and the period of winter, the minimum temperature can reach -15ºC in north and summer is day with maximum temperature between 45ºC in south. Humidity is generally high especially in the winter (Dec-Mar) months (Ilam Meteorology Office, 2010).
The natural vegetation is rangeland and oak forest. Flora of Ilam province is extremely rich with about 1000 species of plant (Mozaffarian, 2008). The present study focused on the current status of knowledge of folk medicine in Abdanan and Dehloran districts. These districts are situated on the west and southwest of Ilam province. The Ilam population is predominantly Feyli Kurdish. The province total population was 545,787 in 2006. The population of Abdanan and Dehloran was 47,370 and 62,256 in 2006, respectively. The northern part of the province is mostly inhabited by Kurdish tribes who speak with two dialects: Kalhuri and Feyli. The majority are Feyli Kurds, such as Kurdish tribes of Khezel, Arkawâzi, Beyrey (Ali Sherwan), Malekshahi and Shuhan. Lurs live in the southern and eastern parts of the province; for example: Abdanan, Dareh Shahr, Dehloran and Mehran. Most are Shi'a Muslims. The Kurds are traditionally nomadic people. The people's main source of living in this region is farming, agriculture, sheepherding and husbandry (MPOI, 2003).
Plants have always had an important role to play in medicine and public health. The knowledge on the use of medicinal plants was acquired by trial and error and handed on from generation to generation (Ghorbani, 2005). Nevertheless, handing down of this knowledge is in danger due to bad contacts between older and younger generations. Iran has a long medical tradition and traditional learning of medicinal plants (Ghorbani, 2005). Some authors have investigated the traditional pharmacopeia and medicinal plants in different areas of Iran (Afshar, 1990;Amin, 1991;Ayiineh Chii, 1989;Ghasemi Pirbalouti, 2009;Ghorbani, 2005;Hovayzeh et al., 2001;Miraldi et al., 2001;Mir-Heidari, 1993;Salehi Surmaghi et al., 1992;Zargari, 1989Zargari, -1992. However, no information is available on the medicinal plants of the Ilam communities. In order to record all these medicinal knowledge, new or rare uses of medicinal plants and to record any use of plants in the region, the ethnobotanical survey of Ilam communities is undertaken.
The aims of this paper are:  The documentation of indigenous medicinal plants used in Ilam, Iran

Plant parts used, preparation and administration
Leaves (30%) are the most widely used plant parts even solely or mixed with other parts, followed by flowers (22%), fruits (13%) and stem (10%) in some cases the whole plant ( Figure 3).

Ailments treated
The 122 medicinal plant species were used in treating 79 different types of ailments ( Table 2). The highest number of plant species (17 species) was used for the treatment of gastric disorders followed by antiseptic, indigestion, laxative and wound healing (14 species).

Veterinary uses
Interviewees have mentioned few species for treatment of animals. Nicotina tabacum (reported by the 10% of informants) is only used in veterinary medicine, as anti-parasitic (Anti-leech for example: Limnatis nilotica) and antifungal (antidermatophytosis) for external use. Sorghum halepense and Amygdalus arabica, used commonly for humans (see Table 1), are employed as remedies for domestic animals. The leaf and stem of Sorghum halepense is administered externally to animals for abortion. The oil seed of Amygdalus arabica is used externally for body pain.

Marketability of medicinal plants
Nicotiana tabacum used as a stimulant (smoking), Cannabis sativa is used as a nut, while Sesamum indicum is used as a culinary agent and nut (oil crop) and Crocus sativus is used as a spice and culinary (color and flavor of rice and other foods) medicinal plants were sold in the market for their respective indications.

Discussions and conclusions
In present study, we have compared our ethnobotanical data with the data present in Iranian Medicinal plant literatures (Afshar, 1990;Amin, 1991 Zargari, 1989Zargari, -1992. Most of the plants indicated by the interviewees are reported in Iranian literature, but not in every occasion were the actions attributed to a plant the same. For example, there are not reports in the official Iranian phytotherapy of the use of Atriplex leucoclada and Echinops viscidulus as an emollient, cough and sore throat; Avena wiestii as treatment of gastric pain and rheumatism; Centaurea iberica, Centaurea ovina, Centaurea intricate and Picnomon acarna as treatment of gastric pain; Cerasus microcarpa subsp. microcarpa as sedative, anticalculus and anti-fever; Cirsium congestum and Crocus haussknechtii as anti-septic for gastric; Colchicum kotschyi as treatment of rheumatism; Consolida orientalis as laxative and anti-parasite, Ephedra ciliata as anti-bacterial and anti-fever, Euphorbia macroclada as treatment of wart; Lonicera nummulariifolia as anti-fever, anti-diarrheal and sedative; Nepeta persica as carminative and anti-urticarial; Noaea mucronata and Onobrychis elymaitica as anti-calculus and kidney problems; Opoponex hispidus as antiseptic; Prangos ferulacea as laxative; Periploca aphylla as anti-inflammatory; Prosopis farcta as blood thinner and anti-diabetic (reduction of blood glucose); Salvia palaestina as women fertility and women infections; Satureja khuzistanica as indigestion; headache, women infections and diuretic; Scrophularia deserti and Scrophularia striata as wound and burn healing; Stipa capensis as treatment of nerve system problems and gastric discords; Tamarix ramosissima as treatment of dermal discords, wound healing and sputum ; Thymbra spicata as treatment of cough, antibacterial and carminative; Ulmus glabra as treatment of heart discords and fertility discords; Verbascum alepense as anti-fever, dermal discords and wound healing; Vitex pseudo-negundo as increased milk; Nicotiana tabacum as treatment animal (Anti-leech and anti-dermatophytosis).

Figure 4: Landscape of cover plants on rangelands in Ilam province, Iran
Our study contributed confirmed the ethnobotanical knowledge of Abdanan and Dehloran districts, filling a long overlooked gap. It once more remarked the relationship existing between plant diversity and the degree of ethnobotanical knowledge recorded. The former has been retained thanks to a long history of nature preservation in the study area. It is worth highlighting that we found some young people who still retain ethnobotanical knowledge or at least express interest towards traditional uses, so that they performed well as key informants. This clearly derives from the cultural and professional opportunities offered by living in a famous protected area where nature is still an important issue for local communities. However, even under these circumstances many uses have disappeared and some forgotten by otherwise experienced informants. We believe that cultural diversity should be seen in a broader sense as part of biodiversity of a region, especially where disentangling human influence and nature is virtually impossible. Traditional knowledge should therefore feature more often in the agendas of nature reserves besides biological richness as a value to preserve for the future. In general, the people of the study area still have a strong belief in the efficiency and success of medicinal plants. The results of our study reveal that some of the plant species do play an important role in the primary healthcare system of this tribal community.