The Studies on Medicinal Plants of Cholistan Desert Pakistan An Ethnobotanical & Ethnopharmacological Approach to Medicinal Plants of Cholistan Desert and its joining area

Local people of Cholistan desert of Bahawalpur (Pakistan) have always used medicinal plants for their common health problems by traditional method. Indigenous knowledge of local people about medicinal plant is directly linked to their culture and history. The present study was designed for the Ethnobotanical evaluation of Cholistan desert, which is one of the resource based area of medicinal plants. Indigenous knowledge of local people about the medicinal uses of plants is the source of ideas for new research in drug development and for wider use and economic benefit. There are large number of unexploited plant species in the area which could prove useful. The local people of this desert have good knowledge of the utilization of medicinal plants and this knowledge is going to be lost because of the interference of modern cultural changes. The observations emerged from the present study to be substantiated with pharmaco-chemical studies in the order to evaluate their effectiveness.