Conservation Ecology and Heavy Metal Analysis of Calotropis Procera, A Native Rare Species in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Abstract

The present work was conducted for the evaluation of a native species Calotropis procera status in the area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The study was based on different objectives and each chapter in the thesis cover these objectives. Therefore, we summarize thesis objective wise. The 1st chapter focuses on the study area of the research and the study plant with its importance and objectives of the current study. In the 2nd chapter, environmental and anthropogenic variable effecting the plant population were evaluated in which anthropogenic factors were considered the drivers for its population decline. The 3rd chapter assesses the traits plasticity of Sodom Apple (Calotropis procera (Aiton) W.T.Aiton) along the environmental gradient in the semi-arid environment, in addition to developing an allometric equation for the estimation of biomass accumulation. The 4th chapter evaluates the heavy metal accumulation potential of the plant species for the utilization of the species for phytoremediation and also to assess the medicinal safety of the species for phytochemical and medicinal purposes. In chapter 5th the causes of its probable endangering have been highlighted in which one of the impotent factors is the invasion of two aggressive noxious weeds i.e. Xanthium strumarium L. and Parthenium hysterophorus L. which is probably poses serious threat to the population of this native species. The 6th chapter of the thesis deal the quantitative ethnobotany and conservation status of the species for its better utilization and habitat safety measures. The thesis concludes that the native species although is very useful for medical and ethnobotanical point of view and even a better bio accumulator of metal but is under stress of over cutting and may be endangered in near future