Ethnobotanical Study of Wild Edible Plants in Pyuthan, Nepal

Wild edible plants are those plants that are not domesticated and often neglected but have nutritional and medicinal value and can be used as a good source of diet. The study discusses and depicts the availability of wild edible plants, their taxonomical categories, species richness, distribution, preference, and their threat in the Gaumukhi area. Data were collected from 60 randomly selected wild edible plant consumers of Puja and Khung village using a semi-structured interview schedule. The study showed that 37 different species of wild plants are frequently used by respondents. It was found that the majority of the WEP’s used were trees followed by herbs and shrubs. It was found that majority of WEP's used were trees followed by herbs and shrubs. Regarding the plant parts used, most of the respondents (54%) use WEP’s in the form of vegetables followed by raw fruits (28%) users. The study revealed that the majority of WEP’s consumers (39%) were from other caste categories like Giri, Puri, Malla, etc. followed by Dalits (36%). Research indicated that most of the WEPs were collected from the forest area having an altitude of (1300-1500) masl. The major threat to wild edible plants was fuel wood collection followed by uncontrolled fire. Study preference of WEP’s among the respondents showed that Polystichumsquarrosum (Daude) was the highly preferred one followed by Diplaziumesculentum (Neuro) and Dendrocalamushamiltoni (Tama). Keywords— WEP, Gaumukhi, Ethnicity, Habitat, Threat.


INTRODUCTION
Nepal, being a small country, occupying just 0.1% of the global area is rich in its biodiversity, both in plant and animal diversity and cultural diversity (MoFSC, 2014).The country is bestowed with climatic variation and unique geography which provides diversified topography.The ecologically rich environment and the multi-ethnic population is a unique and attractive attribute of the country.Biodiversity and cultural diversity come together as we know; different ethnic groups depend on biodiversity for their food security.Nepal is rich in wild edible plants growing in different ecosystems and such plants along with their wild relatives enrich the genetic diversity in the country.About 1500 species of plants found in Nepal are considered to be useful (Manandhar, 2002).Out of these, 651 species are economically useful including 440 species as wild food plants.Total 394 wild plants are recorded to be in use in different purposes such as vegetables (246 spp), fruits (125 spp), pickle (44 spp), jam (11 spp), spices and condiments (10 spp), oil (6 spp) and other uses (Dangolet.al2017).During food scarcity, people from both, urban and rural communities highly depend on natural habitats to gather edible fruits and vegetables (Manandhar, 1982) (Mahato, 2014)].No research has been found to be studied on WEP in Pyuthan district.This paper has attempted to compile and analyze the information on wild edible plants along with their plant parts, uses, the local and scientific names which are available, utilized, and unutilized in the Pyuthan district.

Study site
Pyuthan district was selected purposively for the study site as it is well known as the home of various indigenous wild plants for a long time.The study was carried out in Ward no.5 (Khung) and ward no.4 (Puja) of Gaumukhi Rural municipality in Pyuthan, Nepal.The reason behind the selection is that people around those areas mostly depend on wild plants as a source of their living.Among the consumers, 30 sampling population from each ward was selected randomly using simple random sampling techniques.

Ethnobotanical Survey
Before conducting the Ethnobotanical survey in both the village, we had a meeting with the leader of the village explaining our research objective.After getting verbal consent from the authority figure, the survey was conducted on the villages, and the respondents were categorized based on ethnic group.A total of 60 informants were interviewed and asked the 5W+H questions (viz.what, who, why, when, where, and how the respondents are utilizing the wild edible plants) to gain information on local name, usage, availability, species richness, threats, and opportunities of WEP.The informants freely stated their information and knowledge regarding the WEP available in the study area without being interfered.

Research Instrument and design
The pre-tested interview schedule was used to collect primary information.In addition, one focus group discussion and two key informant interviews were performed.Furthermore, secondary data were collected from various relevant journals, literature, and publications of different organizations.After data collection, it was thoroughly checked, coded, and entered for analysis.

Data Analysis
After the data collection process, it was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative analytical tools.Microsoft Excel sheet was used to organize the collected ethnobotanical data.The collected data was thoroughly checked, tabulated, and analyzed by SPSS software and RStudio.
Preference ranking was performed by Henry Garrett ranking method to analyze the most popular wild edible plants based on respondent's daily consumption.The percent position of each rank was obtained by the formula and then converted to the score from the table given by Henry Garrett.

List of WEP with its Local name, English name and Scientific name
The local people of the study area mentioned about availability of various wild fruits, vegetables, and medicinal plants in the study area.Table 1 shows the list of local edible plants along with their English name and the scientific name which are majorly available and utilized by the respondents of the study area.

Taxonomical categories of WEP
The figure 1 shows the categories of the wild edible plants that are available in the study site.According to the study, out of total wild plants mentioned by the 60 respondents, 27(45%) were trees followed by 16(26%) herbs, 13(22%) shrubs and 4(7%) climbers.

Fig 1: Taxonomical categories of WEPs
Source: Field survey

Plant parts used as food
Wild edible plants are used in various forms by the people in the study area.The figure1 shows that majority of the wild edible plants (WEP) are used in the form of vegetables (54%) followed by raw fruits (28%) and pickle (12%), oil (3%) and spices (3%).Research shows that, mostly, the respondents collect wild edible plants from (60%) forest area followed by (15%) grazing land, (12%) riverside, (8%) roadside and (5%) crop fields.(Fig 3)

Dependence on WEPs based on Ethnicity
The respondents were categorized in four major ethnic groups; Brahmin, Chhetri, Dalits and Others.The others category in the study area includes Giri, Puri, etc.

Preference of WEP in study area
Based on daily consumption by the respondents of study area, the preference of WEP is ranked by Henry Garrett ranking method.Among the different crops listed by respondents, Dauderanked first followed by Neuro, Tama, Sisnu and Simesaag.

IV. CONCLUSION
Most of the wild plants available in the study area were found to be edible.The objective of our study was to understand and record the local knowledge on indigenous plants which are available in the Gaumukhi area of the Pyuthan district.The study was focused to promote the neglected plants which have high value in terms of nutrients and medicine.The result of our research survey shows that the WEP are not only a good source of nutrients and food to local communities but also, can be used as means of income generation by the local population.The study highlights the ethnicity of the people in the study area and their dependence on wild plants.The study revealed information about edibility, natural habitat, and plant parts used as food.These multi-valued plants are in threat by causes such as fuelwood collection, uncontrolled fire, overgrazing, forest land encroachment, and over-harvesting.Conservation and sustainable management of these resources could be a great contribution to local communities as well as biodiversity.
Encouraging the youth of communities rather than consulting elders for the information and knowledge on wild plants could be helpful to conserve these valuable resources.The study we made on ethnobotanical research on wild plants from different ethnic groups located in the study area could be the key data to promote the importance of wild edible plants and conservation of cultural traditional value among the youngsters.The wild plants, if conserved, could turn into a profitable crop and also contribute to the sustainable use of natural resources by safeguarding the endangered species.
given for i th item j th individual Nj= Number of items ranked by j th individual

Fig 2 :
Fig 2: Parts of Plants used as food Source: Field survey

Fig 3 :
Fig 3: Distribution of Wild Edible Plants Source: Field Survey Fig 4   shows the findings of the study made to know and understand the dependence of respondents on wild edible plants on the basis of their ethnicity.The others category (39%) was found to depend more on wild plants comparing to Dalits (36%), Chhetri (15%) and Brahmin (10%).

Fig 5 :
Fig 5: Species richness along the elevation gradient Source: Field survey

Fig 6 :
Fig 6: Threats to Wild Edible Plants Source: Field survey

Fig. 7 :Fig. 8 :
Fig.7: DaudeFig: Ghanggaru (Polystichumsquarrosum)(Pyracantharenulata) crop plants, the tradition of eating wild edible plants has not been completely abandoned (Lockettet.al2000).Gathering the indigenous edible plants for both, self-consumption and sales is usually common in Nepal in most of the rural communities.