Medicinal Plants Used During Childbirth and Maternal-Neonatal Healthcare in Punjab, Pakistan
Ethnobotany
Fenugreek growing in your herb garden has been trusted by mothers across Punjab for generations to boost milk supply — and this study is one of the first to formally document that use before it disappears.
Scientists interviewed over 700 women in rural Pakistan to learn which plants they use during childbirth and for caring for newborns. They found 30 plants in active use — things like fenugreek to help with breastfeeding and chamomile to settle a baby's stomach. Crucially, most of these plant uses had never been written down before, meaning this knowledge could easily be lost if not recorded now.
Key Findings
30 plant species were documented, with fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) and flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum) ranking highest in both use value (UV=0.09) and frequency of citation (RFC=0.086).
Gastrointestinal problems in newborns had the highest consensus among informants (ICF=0.93), with chamomile and mint used as remedies, indicating strong shared cultural knowledge around infant digestion.
Jaccard's index comparisons with other regions scored only 3.0–19.3%, and novelty percentage reached 40–86.7%, showing this Punjab tradition is highly regionally unique with minimal overlap with documented practices elsewhere.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers documented 30 medicinal plant species used by rural women in Punjab, Pakistan for childbirth and newborn care, revealing a highly distinctive regional tradition with little overlap with practices documented elsewhere. Plants like fenugreek for milk production and chamomile for infant digestion represent living knowledge that has never been formally recorded.
Abstract Preview
Background and objectives: Ethnobotanical research is a critical tool for documenting traditional knowledge, yet specialized studies focusing on neonatal and maternal healthcare remain scarce. Mate...
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Fenugreek is an annual plant in the family Fabaceae, with leaves consisting of three small obovate to oblong leaflets. It is cultivated worldwide as a semiarid crop. Its leaves and seeds are common ingredients in dishes from the Indian subcontinent, and have been used as a culinary ingredient sin...