STUDIES ON NUTRITIONAL PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND FUNCTIONAL COMPOSITION OF FOUR SELECTED PLANTS OF NAMAL VALLEY (MIANWALI) PUNJAB PAKISTAN

Research study was carried out to assess the geo-environmental interaction of the vegetation of Namal valley. Namal valley is located about 30 km from Mianwali city in the eastern direction.This valley is located in the Salt range. The vegetation of Namal valley is still unobserved and unnoticed. Anthropogenic disturbances like accidental fires by the herds' men and illegal honey hunters, agricultural activities and harvesting of medicinal plants by uprooting have markedly disturbed the natural plant vegetation in this valley. Experimental results of four selected plants (Grewia tanax, Tephrosia purpurea, Pu-licaria edmondsonii, Pentatropis spiralis) revealed that Tephrosia purpurea scored maximum frequency and density i.e 61.04% and 29.48% respectively. These plants differed considerably in term of importance value . The importance value of G.tanax, T.purpurea, P.edmondsonii and P. spiralis was 16.30, 64.27, 58.62 and 19.10 % respectively. Phytochemi-cals analysis confirmed the presence of phytochemi-cals such as tannins, saponin, alkaloids, flavanoids, terpenoids and steroids in all plant samples. All the four plants found rich in flavonoids. Proximate analysis presented that moisture content of G.tanax, T.purpurea, P.edmondsonii and P. spiralis leaves were 26.02, 21.36, 20.95and 43.39% . All four plants showed variation in terms of minerals and amino acids content.