Himalayan Tribal Plant Remedies Reveal a Hidden Pharmacy for Livestock Health

High in the Western Himalayas, where villages cling to terraced slopes and livestock are the backbone of household survival, tribal communities have spent generations treating sick animals with remedies gathered from the surrounding forests. A new study published in Plant Biosystems by Niharika Sharma and Radha of Shoolini University has now put that knowledge under the microscope, combining large-scale ethnobotanical fieldwork with laboratory analysis to ask a deceptively simple question: does the folklore actually hold up chemically? The answer, according to the researchers, is a resounding yes, and it carries implications for sustainable livestock care and food security far beyond the mountain valleys where the data were collected.

Between 2022 and 2023, the research team carried out an extensive survey across ten villages, five in the Jaunsar region of Uttarakhand and five in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. In total, 150 participants took part through structured interviews, group discussions and field visits, sharing knowledge passed down within the Jaunsari and Kinnaura tribal communities. The scale of the resulting inventory is striking. In Jaunsar, the team recorded 131 plant species belonging to 61 families, while in Kinnaur they documented 116 species from 60 families. In Jaunsar the mint family, Lamiaceae, dominated the medicinal flora, whereas in Kinnaur the daisy family, Asteraceae, took that role, a pattern that reflects the distinct ecological conditions of the two regions.

What sets this study apart from many ethnobotanical surveys is the quantitative rigour applied to the traditional knowledge itself. Rather than simply listing plants and their uses, the researchers analysed the data using a battery of standard ethnobotanical indices: Use Reports, Relative Frequency of Citation, the Informant Consensus Factor and Fidelity Level. These metrics allow scientists to distinguish between remedies that are idiosyncratic to a single healer and those that represent genuine cultural consensus, where many independent informants converge on the same plant for the same condition. High consensus values are widely regarded as a signal that a remedy is worth prioritising for pharmacological investigation.

The consensus analysis revealed remarkable agreement across both communities in several therapeutic domains. Informants showed a high level of cultural consensus in using specific plants to treat gastrointestinal ailments, skin infections and foot-and-mouth disease, one of the most economically damaging viral infections of cattle and other cloven-hoofed livestock. Equally notable was the strong agreement on plants used to stimulate lactation in dairy animals, a use of direct nutritional significance for households that depend on milk. The consistency of these patterns across two geographically separated tribal groups suggests that the underlying observations about plant efficacy were arrived at independently and repeatedly over long periods of practical use.

The details of how remedies are prepared and administered also emerged clearly from the survey. Leaves were the most commonly used plant part in both regions, a finding with positive conservation implications because harvesting foliage is generally less destructive to plant populations than uprooting roots or stripping bark. Oral administration was the predominant mode of treatment in both communities, meaning that whatever bioactive compounds the plants contain must survive the digestive environment of the animal to exert their effects. This detail matters for laboratory scientists, because it shapes which chemical fractions and delivery forms are most relevant when validating traditional preparations.

To move from testimony to chemistry, the researchers performed proximate and phytochemical analyses on the documented species, quantifying crude fibre, crude protein and carbohydrates alongside major classes of secondary metabolites including alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins. The results showed statistically significant differences, at the p less than 0.05 level, both between species and between the two regions, reflecting the ecological variation that shapes plant chemistry across altitude, soil and climate. Crude protein and fibre content speak directly to the nutritional value of these plants as forage or feed supplements, while the secondary metabolites point to their medicinal potential.

Each of the measured compound classes has a well-documented pharmacological pedigree. Flavonoids are among the most intensively studied plant secondary metabolites, with a substantial body of research supporting antimicrobial and antioxidant activity; compounds such as quercetin, a flavonoid confirmed in earlier Himalayan plant analyses, have been shown to disrupt bacterial membranes and inhibit microbial enzymes. Alkaloids, nitrogen-containing molecules that include some of the most potent drugs in the pharmacopoeia, contribute to a wide range of physiological effects. Saponins, glycosides that foam in water, have documented roles in animal systems, including effects on rumen fermentation, parasite burden and immune function. The presence of all three classes in the surveyed species provides a plausible chemical basis for at least some of the traditional uses reported by informants.

Confirming the quantitative assays, the team employed high-performance thin-layer chromatography, or HPTLC, a sensitive analytical technique that separates complex plant extracts into their constituent compounds and allows them to be identified against reference standards. The HPTLC fingerprints confirmed the presence of key bioactive compounds in the analysed species, providing an objective chemical record that complements the ethnobotanical data. This kind of analytical validation is increasingly seen as an essential bridge between field documentation and the development of standardised herbal products, because it establishes which compounds are actually present and creates a baseline for quality control in any future formulation.

The broader context of the work is the mounting pressure on livestock health systems in mountain regions. Veterinary services in remote Himalayan villages are scarce and expensive, and conventional pharmaceuticals may be unaffordable or simply unavailable when animals fall ill. Ethnoveterinary medicine, the application of traditional plant-based remedies to animal care, offers a low-cost, locally available alternative that also reduces dependence on synthetic drugs, with attendant benefits for antimicrobial stewardship and residue-free animal products. The authors argue that the documented dataset underscores the need for both conservation of the plant resources involved and scientific validation of the traditional practices, so that safe, cost-effective and sustainable herbal remedies can be developed for the Western Himalayas.

There is also a global dimension to the findings. Livestock production is a cornerstone of food security worldwide, and the study situates traditional knowledge within the wider agenda of resilient food systems and sustainable intensification. By documenting which species are used, quantifying their nutritional composition and confirming their bioactive chemistry, the research converts fragile oral knowledge into a durable scientific dataset before it is lost to generational change and environmental pressure. For the Jaunsari and Kinnaura communities, the work affirms the value of knowledge that has sustained their herds for centuries; for the wider scientific community, it delivers a prioritised, chemically annotated shortlist of Himalayan plants whose veterinary potential is now ripe for pharmacological testing, clinical validation and, ultimately, integration into sustainable livestock health strategies.

Subject of Research: Ethnobotanical and phytochemical assessment of plants used for livestock health by Himalayan tribal communities

Article Title: Ethnobotanical plants of the Indian Western Himalayas: nutritional and phytochemical assessment for sustainable livestock health and food security

Article References: Sharma, N., & Radha (2026). Ethnobotanical plants of the Indian Western Himalayas: nutritional and phytochemical assessment for sustainable livestock health and food security. Plant Biosystems, 160(5), Article 274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44473-026-00279-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44473-026-00279-2

Keywords: ethnobotany, ethnoveterinary medicine, Western Himalayas, phytochemistry, livestock health, food security, Jaunsari, Kinnaura, HPTLC, medicinal plants, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh