The folk-medicinal plants of Kadişehri ( Yozgat – Turkey )

It is a well-known fact that, throughout the centuries, plants, owing to their many beneficial properties, have played a significant role in the daily life of human beings, providing food and medicines, as well as other advantages, e.g. plant fibres for clothes, wood for building etc. In other words, plants used for various illnesses are placed first in order of importance as natural resources. Treatment with traditional folk-medicine is still esteemed highly, particularly by those who have no access to modern healthcare. Thus, it is inevitable that so-called traditional folk-medicine mostly originates from plants. Around 80% of the world’s population use plants to treat several illnesses [1]. Medicinal plants are an important source of modern drugs; indeed, about 25% of the drugs prescribed worldwide come from plants [2]. The Turkish flora contains 9582 species of vascular plants, with some 3155 being endemic [3]. Historically, having sheltered many Anatolian civilizations, Turkey is rich both in the variety of its cultural and natural resources, and accordingly, traditional herbal medicine plays a prominent role in Turkey. Many ethnobotanical studies have been carried out by researchers in various regions of Turkey [4–83]. Such areas as central Anatolia are well studied, whereas other parts of Turkey, such as south-east Anatolia, still await thorough investigation [84]. Another example of a hitherto neglected region, in terms of investigation, is that of Kadışehri. Nevertheless, Akdağmadeni, the closest neighbor to Kadışehri, was studied [51].


Introduction
It is a well-known fact that, throughout the centuries, plants, owing to their many beneficial properties, have played a significant role in the daily life of human beings, providing food and medicines, as well as other advantages, e.g.plant fibres for clothes, wood for building etc.In other words, plants used for various illnesses are placed first in order of importance as natural resources.Treatment with traditional folk-medicine is still esteemed highly, particularly by those who have no access to modern healthcare.Thus, it is inevitable that so-called traditional folk-medicine mostly originates from plants.Around 80% of the world's population use plants to treat several illnesses [1].Medicinal plants are an important source of modern drugs; indeed, about 25% of the drugs prescribed worldwide come from plants [2].
The Turkish flora contains 9582 species of vascular plants, with some 3155 being endemic [3].Historically, having sheltered many Anatolian civilizations, Turkey is rich both in the variety of its cultural and natural resources, and accordingly, traditional herbal medicine plays a prominent role in Turkey.Many ethnobotanical studies have been carried out by researchers in various regions of Turkey .Such areas as central Anatolia are well studied, whereas other parts of Turkey, such as south-east Anatolia, still await thorough investigation [84].Another example of a hitherto neglected region, in terms of investigation, is that of Kadışehri.Nevertheless, Akdağmadeni, the closest neighbor to Kadışehri, was studied [51].

Study area
Kadışehri is located in central Turkey (39-40' N, 34-35" E), at an altitude of 1040 m above sea level (Fig. 1).Kadışehri consists of a single sub-district and 26 villages.It covers an area of 578 km 2 and has a population of 15 000.Approximately 5000 people live in the city center, whereas the remainder lives in the sub-district and villages.Kadışehri is flanked by Zile (Tokat) to the north, Saraykent (Yozgat) and Akdağmadeni (Yozgat) to the south, Sulusaray (Tokat) and Yıldızeli (Sivas) to the east and Çekerek (Yozgat) to the west (Fig. 2).
Deveci Mountain (1907 m) is the highest elevation to the north of Kadışehri.The location of the region's most important plateau is named Alçılı Seki.Additionally, Çekerek Çayı, the region's largest river, is located towards the southern border of the county.
The climate in the area is typically steppe, with an annual mean temperature of 11°C, and a mean rainfall of 594 mm.The main crops of Kadışehri are wheat, barley, sugar beet, vetch and sunflower [85].

Field study
Ethnobotanical data was collected by means of open and semi-structured interviews [86][87][88] with local people.The interviews took the form of general conversations and a strict questionnaire (Appendix S1).We asked the participants to show us methods for preparing the medicinal plants that they used, and we usually collected the plants with local people.In some cases, certain plants were collected beforehand from the same locality that the interviews were made.
A total of 65 people were interviewed.Of the 65 participants who took part in the questionnaire, 38 were female, and 27 were male.The age of participants varied from 40 to 90, the mean age being 63.They included farmers, housewives, shepherds, mukhtar (headmen of villages) and cafe owners.Interviews were conducted at various places (coffee houses, gardens, houses, fields, etc.).The three interviewees had migrated from eastern Anatolia 20 years ago and are now considered to have become an integral part of the population of the area.During the interviews, various information was collected [e.g.local names, part(s) of the plants used, ailments treated, therapeutic effect, methods of preparation and methods of administration] from experienced adults and patients.In addition, any harmful effects of the folkmedicine, if declared, were also recorded.
The collected plants were identified by the authors based on the Flora of Turkey and East Aegean Islands [89][90][91] and Flora Europaea [92].Voucher specimens were deposited at the Herbarium of Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Marmara (MARE).

Data analysis
A simple cultural importance index (CI) [93] was calculated for each species using the following formula: CI = UR / N; where UR (number of use report) -the total number of uses recorded for each species; N = the total number of respondents participating in the research.For that reason, for each taxon referred to by a respondent as having a medicinal use (detailed in Tab.1), that report has been recorded as a use-report (UR).

Results
The plants used for medicinal purposes in Kadışehri are presented in Tab. 1 and Tab. 2 and arranged alphabetically according to their botanical names, together with relevant information.Taxonomical changes to The Plant List [94] are shown in parentheses in Tab. 1, together with popular scientific names.During this study, 94 specimens were collected in the research area.Fifty-six medicinal plant species, belonging to 34 families, were recorded for the research area.Of these, 48 species were wild, and 8 species were cultivated plants.The most common medicinal plant families were Rosaceae (12.5%),Lamiaceae (8.9%) and Asteraceae (7.1%).
The local people sometimes also used other ingredients, such as butter, flour, tahina, yoghurt, honey and milk to prepare the remedies.
The main preparation methods were decoction (36.7%) and direct application (11.9% without any preparation), crushing (13.8%) and various other ways of preparation (31.1%).During the study, a total of 109 remedies were recorded.Most remedies were taken internally (60.5%;Tab. 1, Tab. 2).Some of the medicinal plants were also used in multiherbal recipes containing two or more species.These are presented in table (Tab.2).Of these, Hypericum perforatum was used only in multi-herbal recipes.
According to the interviewees, Ranunculus kotschyi, should be handled with care since an over-dose (long-term exposure) could prove dangerous.
We compared our study with other comprehensive ethnobotanical studies on plants used for folk-medicine growing in neighboring areas [8,11,16,17,[31][32][33]51,57,72,78] The results of this comparison are presented in table (Tab.1).According to this comparison, Plantago major subsp.major, recorded from ten localities, Urtica dioica and Viscum album, recorded from eight localities, were the most common medicinal plants occurring in Kadışehri and adjacent areas.
Comparison between the traditional uses of plants, as found in our literature , also revealed that Astragalus noaeanus, Populus ×canescens and Salvia cyanescens were recorded in Turkey for the first time in the present study.Astragalus noaeanus is an endemic species that is used for varicosis.Furthermore, Astragalus has the highest ratio of endemism (61.3%) [98].Populus ×canescens is a cultivated plant and is used to treat scabies.Salvia cyanescens is an endemic species whose aerial parts are used, or is prepared as a decoction.This plant is used to treat diabetes.Salvia has many species and, in the literature review that we conducted, we found that some of these were mainly used for abdominal pain and the common cold  Tab. 2 Multiherbal recipes used as folk medicine in Kadışehri.

Conclusion
This present study is the first of its kind to investigate fully those plants used in the traditional folk-medicine of the Kadışehri district, since it is the first study to record the use of Astragalus noaeanus, Populus ×canescens and Salvia cyanescens in Turkey.Furthermore, this study provided the opportunity to record valuable information about plants used in folk-medicine before it is completely lost.Not only does this ethnobotanical study prove, once again, that the use of traditional folk-medicine in Kadışehri is still prevalent, especially amongst those living in small villages, but it also provides a reliable guide to plants as a resource of medicines yet to be discovered.

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Geographical location of the study area.

Fig. 2
Fig. 2 General view of Kadışehri and villages.

Botanical name, family and specimen number Local name Plant part used Ailments treated/ therapeutic effect Preparation Administration UR (use report) CI Similar usage in literature
5Tab. 1 Folk medicinal plants of Kadışehri (Yozgat, Turkey).Botanical name,

family and specimen number Local name Plant part used Ailments treated/ therapeutic effect Preparation Administration UR (use report) CI Similar usage in literature
bTab.1 (continued)Botanical name,

family and specimen number Local name Plant part used Ailments treated/ therapeutic effect Preparation Administration UR (use report) CI Similar usage in literature
7Tab.1 (continued)Botanical name,

family and specimen number Local name Plant part used Ailments treated/ therapeutic effect Preparation Administration UR (use report) CI Similar usage in literature
Different usage.Int.-internal use; Ext.-external use.The new plant uses were marked as bold.
a Cultivated plant.b . Some of medicinal plants have been recorded as wild edible plants in our study area.They include: Berberis crataegina, Cydonia oblonga, Eryngium campestre var.virens, [99]a neglecta, Polygonum cognatum, Prunus divaricata subsp.divaricata,Prunusspinosa subsp.dasyphylla,Rosacanina, Rumex crispus, and Urtica urens.In addition, Rosa canina and Thymus sipyleus subsp.rosulansareused as a herbal tea and Satureja wiedemanniana and Thymus sipyleus subsp.rosulansareused for spicing food.Some of these plants are collected by local people and sold in the local bazaar.Apart from these plants, the literature[99]states that the following wild plants of Turkey are also edible and used as food: Cerinthe minor subsp.auriculata, Convolvulus arvensis, Crataegus tanacetifolia, Malva neglecta, Plantago lanceolata, Plantago major subsp.major, Ranunculus kotschyi, Salvia sclarea, Tripleurospermum parviflorum and Urtica dioica.