Gathered Wild Food Plants among Diverse Religious Groups in Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan

Recent ethnobotanical studies have raised the hypothesis that religious affiliation can, in certain circumstances, influence the evolution of the use of wild food plants, given that it shapes kinship relations and vertical transmission of traditional/local environmental knowledge. The local population living in Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan comprises very diverse religious and linguistic groups. A field study about the uses of wild food plants was conducted in the district. This field survey included 120 semi-structured interviews in 27 villages, focusing on six religious groups (Sunni and Shia Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Ahmadis). We documented a total of 77 wild food plants and one mushroom species which were used by the local population mainly as cooked vegetables and raw snacks. The cross-religious comparison among six groups showed a high homogeneity of use among two Muslim groups (Shias and Sunnis), while the other four religious groups showed less extensive, yet diverse uses, staying within the variety of taxa used by Islamic groups. No specific plant cultural markers (i.e., plants gathered only by one community) could be identified, although there were a limited number of group-specific uses of the shared plants. Moreover, the field study showed erosion of the knowledge among the non-Muslim groups, which were more engaged in urban occupations and possibly underwent stronger cultural adaption to a modern lifestyle. The recorded traditional knowledge could be used to guide future development programs aimed at fostering food security and the valorization of the local bio-cultural heritage.


Introduction
Wild food plants have remained an important ingredient of traditional food basket systems especially in remote communities around the globe [1]. However, due to dramatic socio-cultural shifts local communities are facing and global climate change, dependence on wild food plants has drastically decreased in many areas. Food industrialization and globalization have severely impacted traditional food systems, especially in rural • to explore and record the diversity of wild food plants gathered in Jhelum, • to evaluate the local food and possible traditional perceptions, • to compare the mentioned wild food plants among the six selected religious faith groups in order to possibly understand cross-cultural similarities and differences and to better understand the cultural context supporting the use of wild food plants found in Jhelum district.
The study area of Jhelum district is located North of the river Jhelum and is bordered by Rawalpindi district in the North, Sargodha and Gujrat districts in the South, Azad Jammu and Kashmir in the East, and Chakwal district in the West [52,53]. The population of the district is 1.22 million, and 71% of the population lives in rural areas, while the remaining 29% are urban [54]. The climatic conditions are semi-arid, warm-subtropical, characterized by warm summers and severe winters. Jhelum is a semi-mountainous area (Figure 1), with a mean annual rainfall of 880 mm. The annual average temperature reaches 23.6 °C. Jhelum is home to the world's second largest salt mine (Khewra) covering about 1000 ha [53,55]. The people of Jhelum have a diverse culture with distinct modes of life, traditions, and beliefs [56]. The ethnic groups of the area show a strong connection to wild plants which often have cultural and medicinal significance [57]. a d c b e h g f Figure 1. Diverse landscapes of Jhelum study area, NE Pakistan; (a-d): landscape depicting leading plant species associations (indicator species: Acacia modesta, Acacia nilotica, Prosopis juliflora, Ziziphus numularia, Justicia adhatoda and Dodonea viscosa); (e-g): exposed sedimentary bedrock stratification (age: Pre-Cambrian to Pliocene; composition: limestone, sandstone, shale, and dolomite) and sandy loam textured soil; (h): rangeland for livestock grazing.
The study was conducted in 27 remote villages (Figure 2), all of which contained rivers, mountains, forests, salt mines, and valleys. Some typical and important attributes including landscapes, vegetation, geology and soil, and rangeland are shown in Figure 1. The study was conducted in 27 remote villages (Figure 2), all of which contained rivers, mountains, forests, salt mines, and valleys. Some typical and important attributes including landscapes, vegetation, geology and soil, and rangeland are shown in Figure 1.

Field Study
The ethnobotanical field research was conducted from March to November 2020. Study participants were selected through snowball sampling focusing on middle-aged and elderly inhabitants (range: 40-90 years old), especially farmers, herders, and housewives. Selected interviewees belonged to different religious faiths and different language groups. Twenty participants (men and women) from each religious group were selected and participated in the survey. The characteristics of the study participants from the 27 visited villages and their different socio-cultural and economic attributes are reported in Table 1.

Field Study
The ethnobotanical field research was conducted from March to November 2020. Study participants were selected through snowball sampling focusing on middle-aged and elderly inhabitants (range: 40-90 years old), especially farmers, herders, and housewives. Selected interviewees belonged to different religious faiths and different language groups. Twenty participants (men and women) from each religious group were selected and participated in the survey. The characteristics of the study participants from the 27 visited villages and their different socio-cultural and economic attributes are reported in Table 1.
Prior to starting an interview, oral informed consent was obtained, and the Code of Ethics of the International Society of Ethnobiology [58] was followed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in the national language, Urdu, and some local languages (Punjabi, Saraiki, Pothohari, Gojri, Hinko, Pahari, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Hindi) with the help of translators. The information collected focused on the gathering and consumption patterns of wild plants as cooked vegetables, raw snacks, salads, herbal drinks, recreational herbal teas, jams, and for fermentation following Kujawska and Łuczaj [59]. Particular questions were focused on the use of wild plants in daily food habits or in food fermentation, and the consumption of edible wild food plants [49]. Local names of collected taxa were recorded in eleven different local languages. Prior to starting an interview, oral informed consent was obtained, and the Code of Ethics of the International Society of Ethnobiology [58] was followed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in the national language, Urdu, and some local languages (Punjabi, Saraiki, Pothohari, Gojri, Hinko, Pahari, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Hindi) with the help of translators. The information collected focused on the gathering and consumption patterns of wild plants as cooked vegetables, raw snacks, salads, herbal drinks, recreational herbal teas, jams, and for fermentation following Kujawska and Łuczaj [59]. Particular questions were focused on the use of wild plants in daily food habits or in food fermentation, and the consumption of edible wild food plants [49]. Local names of collected taxa were recorded in eleven different local languages.
During the interviews qualitative ethnographic data was documented following Termote et al. [60]. The recorded wild food plants were collected from the study area and were identified using the Flora of Pakistan [61][62][63]. After correct identification, each taxon was given a voucher specimen number and deposited in the Herbarium of the Department of Botany, University of Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan. For nomenclature, the Plant List database [64] was followed for plants, and the Index Fungorum [65] for the single recorded mushroom taxon. The plant family nomenclature follows the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group [66].

Data Analysis
The documented data was stored in two main binary data spreadsheets (1. Species gathered for any use; 2. Species gathered for specific use) across the six local religious communities and compared through Venn diagrams and pairwise Jaccard's dissimilarity using the R Statistical Package [67][68][69].
The Jaccard Index (JI) was calculated as: J(X, Y) = |X∩Y|/|X∪Y| X = Individual set of plant usages documented by group X Y = Individual set of plant usages documented by group Y By using JI, Jaccard's distance (JD) was calculated as: Moreover, a qualitative comparison with other studies on wild food plants carried out in Pakistan [49][50][51][52][70][71][72] was conducted.

Reported Wild Food Plants and Their Uses
A total of seventy-eight taxa (77 vascular plants and one mushroom) were gathered and consumed in different ways in the study area ( Table 2). The most commonly used wild food plant species were native, with the exception of Agave americana, Amaranthus spinosus, Sonchus oleraceus, Tephrosia purpurea, Trigonella corniculata, Salvia moorcroftiana, Salvia nubicola, Solanum incanum, Chenopodium album, and Portulaca quadrifida, which were grown as herbs or grew wild as weeds in anthropogenically disturbed locations. A total of nine different typologies of food preparations were identified: chutneys (a family of spicy condiments and sauces prototypical of South Asian cuisines); cooked vegetables; fermented preparations; herbal drinks (plant material infused in cold water); herbal teas (plant material infused in hot water); jams; raw snacks (consumed singly, mostly in the field at the collection site); salads (raw plants consumed at the dining table as a starter and/or in conjunction with other food items); and seasoning/spices.         pastoralist activities. However, the transmission of ethnobotanical practices from elders to the younger generation is continuously decreasing due to the generation gap and fast changing lifestyle. With the modernization of life, the younger generation is moving towards cities for education and business opportunities, which is one of the major reasons for the decline of TEK described in many ethnobotanical studies. Some important wild food plants ( Figure 4) and dishes prepared by the visited communities were available for photographing ( Figure 5). Traditional culinary processing included cooking the plants as vegetables (43 mentions), followed by raw snacks (33), confirming what documented in other ethnobotanical studies too [73][74][75]. Raw snacks were eaten especially by transhumant herders, and it has been shown that herding develops specific linkages between humans and their surrounding ecosystem [76][77][78][79]. Herding is also linked to the use of particular types of wild food plants: for example, in Iraq and Kurdistan shepherds consumed more raw snacks than nearby horticulturists [9,76]. Moreover, pastures have been documented as very important gathering habitats of wild food plants [80,81].
Leaves were the most used plant part (38 times used), especially in salads, herbal teas, herbal drinks, as raw snacks, in chutneys, and as cooked vegetables. One third of the reported plants (27 taxa) were only gathered during the spring season.
It was noted that sweet fruits in particular were consumed as raw snacks especially by local communities with a herding lifestyle. Thirty wild food plants were consumed as raw snacks by all religious faith groups, especially Capparis decidua, Caragana ambigua, Cucumis melo, Lathyrus aphaca, Lathyrus sativus, Phoenix sylvestris, Salvadora persica, Solanum americanum, Solanum incanum, Solanum villosum, Ziziphus jujube, Ziziphus nummularia, Ziziphus oxyphylla, and Ziziphus spina-christi, many also earlier reported by Sõukand and Kalle [82]. Although Solanum americanum was recognized as containing toxic alkaloids [83], especially in its fruit [84], informants used fruits as raw snacks without reporting any toxic effects. Similarly, some other important food preparations in the study area were herbal drinks, salads and chutney ( Figure 5).
On a global scale, it has been found that folk knowledge has been decreasing, mostly due to modern lifestyle changes and urbanization [50,71,[85][86][87][88][89][90]. Gathering wild food plants is linked to local biodiversity and especially local cultural practices [91] and in our field study wild plant knowledge among younger informants was limited, similar to what was found in many other studies, for example, Kalle and Sõukand [92]. The most important site for the gathering of wild food plants were grasslands, found sometimes at high elevations, where people normally bring animals for grazing. Summer herders were the most knowledgeable ethnobotanical informants and this show the importance of the link between resilience of wild food plant knowledge and the survival of pastoralist activities. However, the transmission of ethnobotanical practices from elders to the younger generation is continuously decreasing due to the generation gap and fast changing lifestyle. With the modernization of life, the younger generation is moving towards cities for education and business opportunities, which is one of the major reasons for the decline of TEK described in many ethnobotanical studies.
Some important wild food plants ( Figure 4) and dishes prepared by the visited communities were available for photographing ( Figure 5). Traditional culinary processing included cooking the plants as vegetables (43 mentions), followed by raw snacks (33), confirming what documented in other ethnobotanical studies too [73][74][75]. Raw snacks were eaten especially by transhumant herders, and it has been shown that herding develops specific linkages between humans and their surrounding ecosystem [76][77][78][79]. Herding is also linked to the use of particular types of wild food plants: for example, in Iraq and Kurdistan shepherds consumed more raw snacks than nearby horticulturists [9,76]. Moreover, pastures have been documented as very important gathering habitats of wild food plants [80,81].
Leaves were the most used plant part (38 times used), especially in salads, herbal teas, herbal drinks, as raw snacks, in chutneys, and as cooked vegetables. One third of the reported plants (27 taxa) were only gathered during the spring season.
It was noted that sweet fruits in particular were consumed as raw snacks especially by local communities with a herding lifestyle. Thirty wild food plants were consumed as raw snacks by all religious faith groups, especially Capparis decidua, Caragana ambigua, Cucumis melo, Lathyrus aphaca, Lathyrus sativus, Phoenix sylvestris, Salvadora persica, Solanum americanum, Solanum incanum, Solanum villosum, Ziziphus jujube, Ziziphus nummularia, Ziziphus oxyphylla, and Ziziphus spina-christi, many also earlier reported by Sõukand and Kalle [82]. Although Solanum americanum was recognized as containing toxic alkaloids [83], especially in its fruit [84], informants used fruits as raw snacks without reporting any toxic effects. Similarly, some other important food preparations in the study area were herbal drinks, salads and chutney ( Figure 5).

Cross-Religious Comparison
Cross-religious comparison of the used wild food plants ( Figure 6) shows a remarkable homogeneity and the absence of any plant cultural markers (i.e., plants used by one group only); at the same time, however, not a single taxa is used by all the six considered groups and the majority of recorded wild food plants are used by three to four groups.  On a global scale, it has been found that folk knowledge has been decreasing, mostly due to modern lifestyle changes and urbanization [50,71,[85][86][87][88][89][90]. Gathering wild food plants is linked to local biodiversity and especially local cultural practices [91] and in our field study wild plant knowledge among younger informants was limited, similar to what was found in many other studies, for example, Kalle and Sõukand [92].

Cross-Religious Comparison
Cross-religious comparison of the used wild food plants ( Figure 6) shows a remarkable homogeneity and the absence of any plant cultural markers (i.e., plants used by one group only); at the same time, however, not a single taxa is used by all the six considered groups and the majority of recorded wild food plants are used by three to four groups.

Cross-Religious Comparison
Cross-religious comparison of the used wild food plants ( Figure 6) shows a remarkable homogeneity and the absence of any plant cultural markers (i.e., plants used by one group only); at the same time, however, not a single taxa is used by all the six considered groups and the majority of recorded wild food plants are used by three to four groups.  However, the Jaccard's distance heat map (Figure 7) shows high dissimilarity between some groups. While both Muslim groups, Shias and Sunnis, appeared to be closest in their selection of the wild food plants, Hindus and Christians are the most distant. However, the Jaccard's distance heat map (Figure 7) shows high dissimilarity between some groups. While both Muslim groups, Shias and Sunnis, appeared to be closest in their selection of the wild food plants, Hindus and Christians are the most distant. The heat map (Figure 7) allows us to distinguish two easily comparable clusters within the six religious groups: a subgroup of Shias, Sunnis, and Sikhs, which used the highest number of plants (from 56 to 73) and a subgroup using far fewer taxa (Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadis (from 34 to 47). Bearing in mind that Shias and Sunnis together used all 78 listed taxa, there is a clear pattern of dissimilarity among the second subgroup ( Figure 8).
Sunnis, using a slightly higher number of taxa than Shias, had more similarities with all the other groups. This could be due to the fact that the Sunni faith is the dominant one in the study area. Figure 9 shows the comparison among the six groups in terms of specific food uses of the recorded wild food plants; the diagram shows a high diversity as well as a few specific cultural markers.
The similarity heat maps on the typology of wild plants food uses ( Figure 10) demonstrates similar tendencies, outlining even greater differences between Christians and Ahmadis compared to Hindus, and also showing more divergences even among Sunnis and Shias. This suggests that there is a higher similarity in the used wild food plants than the way taxa are actually consumed in the study area; moreover, each considered group retains unique wild food plant utilizations. The heat map (Figure 7) allows us to distinguish two easily comparable clusters within the six religious groups: a subgroup of Shias, Sunnis, and Sikhs, which used the highest number of plants (from 56 to 73) and a subgroup using far fewer taxa (Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadis (from 34 to 47). Bearing in mind that Shias and Sunnis together used all 78 listed taxa, there is a clear pattern of dissimilarity among the second subgroup ( Figure 8).
Sunnis, using a slightly higher number of taxa than Shias, had more similarities with all the other groups. This could be due to the fact that the Sunni faith is the dominant one in the study area. Figure 9 shows the comparison among the six groups in terms of specific food uses of the recorded wild food plants; the diagram shows a high diversity as well as a few specific cultural markers.
The similarity heat maps on the typology of wild plants food uses ( Figure 10) demonstrates similar tendencies, outlining even greater differences between Christians and Ahmadis compared to Hindus, and also showing more divergences even among Sunnis and Shias. This suggests that there is a higher similarity in the used wild food plants than the way taxa are actually consumed in the study area; moreover, each considered group retains unique wild food plant utilizations.      While our results show remarkable social and cultural exchanges between the different religious groups (sharing the same repertoire of plants), we can also see clear differences among the ways local food plants are actually used. This may to be linked to the different exposure the diverse religious groups have to traditional rural lifestyles and to nature. Nowadays, only Shias, Sunnis and Ahmadis have for example retained traditional livelihood practices (farming), while the local community members belonging to the three other faiths (Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs) are partially employed in city jobs, and some of them even practice as professional herbalists. The different relationships to farming that shape the differences in wild food plants-centered TEK among the groups may also be due to diverse levels of land access and land ownership.
While members of the different religions in the study area generally do not intermarry, they very regularly interact in urban settings and this, over centuries, may have contributed to a homogenization of TEK and cultural adaptation to the dominant groups.
The study participants confirmed that the use of wild plant species as daily food has significantly decreased, as well as the use of wild food plants on special occasions and religious festivities. This may be due to the fact that study participants perceive nowadays foraging (collecting wild food plants) as very time consuming, while cultivated plants are relatively easy to purchase in the immediate vicinity, and especially in bulk if and when required on special occasions. These trends may further lead to rapid TEK erosion in the near future, and further ethnobotanical works documenting local uses of wild food plants could be crucial for the food security and the preservation of the bio-cultural heritage of rural communities [93,94]. While our results show remarkable social and cultural exchanges between the different religious groups (sharing the same repertoire of plants), we can also see clear differences among the ways local food plants are actually used. This may to be linked to the different exposure the diverse religious groups have to traditional rural lifestyles and to nature. Nowadays, only Shias, Sunnis and Ahmadis have for example retained traditional livelihood practices (farming), while the local community members belonging to the three other faiths (Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs) are partially employed in city jobs, and some of them even practice as professional herbalists. The different relationships to farming that shape the differences in wild food plants-centered TEK among the groups may also be due to diverse levels of land access and land ownership.
While members of the different religions in the study area generally do not intermarry, they very regularly interact in urban settings and this, over centuries, may have contributed to a homogenization of TEK and cultural adaptation to the dominant groups.
The study participants confirmed that the use of wild plant species as daily food has significantly decreased, as well as the use of wild food plants on special occasions and religious festivities. This may be due to the fact that study participants perceive nowadays foraging (collecting wild food plants) as very time consuming, while cultivated plants are relatively easy to purchase in the immediate vicinity, and especially in bulk if and when required on special occasions. These trends may further lead to rapid TEK erosion in the near future, and further ethnobotanical works documenting local uses of wild food plants could be crucial for the food security and the preservation of the bio-cultural heritage of rural communities [93,94].
Food taboos restricting the consumption of some plants and fruits under certain conditions have been described from many regions of the world, involving followers of various religions including Hindus [95]. Similarly, in this study, some Hindus participants reported that the fruits of Ziziphus oxyphylla and Ziziphus jujuba were gathered only in mountain areas, hilly slopes and scrubland in time of need as famine foods only. Hence, the Hindus, but others possibly as well, follow the specific rules in what they consume, especially like when pregnant or menstruating. Food taboos might influence the uses of certain wild plants with regard to seasons or a consumer's health condition, gender or age [95]. The participants pointed out a few other idiosyncratic food uses of wild plants within specific groups as well; these uses mostly included medicinal foods, i.e., food preparations considered consumed for counteracting specific diseases or health conditions, or ritual uses linked to specific cultural beliefs. For example, the gum of Acacia modesta and Acacia nilotica is added in "halwa" (a local sweet prepared by using clarified butter and wheat bran), and recommended to women after childbirth to avoid general weakness and back pains among the Muslim participants. Similarly, Sikhs conveyed that a limited dosage (about 250-300 mL) of a herbal drink made with Cannabis sativa can induce activeness; the informants claimed that their ancestors use the same preparation during battles in the 19th and 20th century. The herbal tea prepared by using fruits of Tribulus terrestris is drunk by Hindu women in order to improve lactation. Finally, Muslims add leaves of Ziziphus jujuba and Ziziphus numularia in boiling water, and use them for bathing dead persons, as they perceive that would delay their decomposition until burial. The rest of documented wild edible plant species as food in this study may applicable to all gender, religion and age groups equally, and no associated food taboo is mentioned by any participant.
Despite the fact that in our study three quarters of the wild food plants were reported also in other areas of northern Pakistan [50,52], pairwise Jaccard's distance between our findings and those arising from field studies recently conducted in various regions of Pakistan shows little similarity and a very large diversification of wild food plant uses within the country ( Figure 11). This may be explained by the very diverse geography and natural environments, as well as a remarkable cultural diversity, which ultimately and most importantly affect the diversity of food customs of the country.

Conclusions
Our study reported seventy-seven plant taxa and one mushroom used as cultural foods among six different religions. The cross-religious comparison showed high overlap in the used taxa between Shias and Sunnis, who together used all listed taxa in the study region and contributed the most detailed information about specific, commonly used wild food plants. Comparison of the other four religious groups showed much less overlap between the groups and greater variation in the numbers of used plants. Urban Hindus and Christians used the least number of plants, followed by rural Sikhs and urban Ahmadis. A comparative analysis with the wild food plant literature of Pakistan showed a high diversification of wild plant uses in the study region, due to both environmental and cultural factors. This study also concluded that there is relatively higher homogeneity in use of plant species as food compared to method (preparations) of use of the same among the religious groups. Therefore, if one religious group prepares herbal drink of a plant species, the other might prefer to prepare jam of the same, depicting possession of unique recipes.
The inherited cultural knowledge of wild food plants of Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and Ahmadis, in particular, faces the greatest challenges, as these groups have apparently undergone cultural adaptation to an urban, "modern" lifestyle. The present study may provide a foundation for the promotion of eco-tourism and for supporting sustainable development programs. Several of the recorded wild food plants are still sold in local markets (e.g., Capparis, Mentha, Olea, Phoenix, Rhynchosia, Salvadora, Salvia, Senna, Solanum, Trigonella, Vicia, and Ziziphus spp.) and this could represent the basis of wild food plant-centered local projects, aiming to revitalize TEK and generate small-scale economies providing some cash-income for rural communities.

Conclusions
Our study reported seventy-seven plant taxa and one mushroom used as cultural foods among six different religions. The cross-religious comparison showed high overlap in the used taxa between Shias and Sunnis, who together used all listed taxa in the study region and contributed the most detailed information about specific, commonly used wild food plants. Comparison of the other four religious groups showed much less overlap between the groups and greater variation in the numbers of used plants. Urban Hindus and Christians used the least number of plants, followed by rural Sikhs and urban Ahmadis. A comparative analysis with the wild food plant literature of Pakistan showed a high diversification of wild plant uses in the study region, due to both environmental and cultural factors. This study also concluded that there is relatively higher homogeneity in use of plant species as food compared to method (preparations) of use of the same among the religious groups. Therefore, if one religious group prepares herbal drink of a plant species, the other might prefer to prepare jam of the same, depicting possession of unique recipes.
The inherited cultural knowledge of wild food plants of Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and Ahmadis, in particular, faces the greatest challenges, as these groups have apparently undergone cultural adaptation to an urban, "modern" lifestyle. The present study may provide a foundation for the promotion of eco-tourism and for supporting sustainable development programs. Several of the recorded wild food plants are still sold in local markets (e.g., Capparis, Mentha, Olea, Phoenix, Rhynchosia, Salvadora, Salvia, Senna, Solanum, Trigonella, Vicia, and Ziziphus spp.) and this could represent the basis of wild food plant-centered local projects, aiming to revitalize TEK and generate small-scale economies providing some cash-income for rural communities.