Since early times, the people of Morocco use medicinal and aromatic plants as traditional medicine to heal different human ailments. However, little studies have been made in the past to properly document and promote the traditional knowledge. This study was carried out in the Rif (North of Morocco), it aimed to identify medicinal and aromatic plant used by the local people to treat metabolic diseases, together with the associated ethnomedicinal knowledge. The ethnomedical information collected was from 582 traditional healers using semi-structured interviews, free listing and focus group. Family use value (FUV), use value (UV), plant part value (PPV), fidelity level (FL) and informant agreement ratio (IAR) were employed in data analysis. Medicinal and aromatic plant were collected, identified and kept at the natural resources and biodiversity laboratory, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra. During the present study 30 medicinal plant species belonging to 14 families has been documented. The most frequent ailments reported were diabetes (IAR = 0.98). The majority of the remedies were prepared from infusion (53.9%). Leaves were the most frequently used plant part (PPV 0.633) and Rosmarinus officinalis L. (UV = 0.325) was the specie most commonly prescribed by local herbalists. The results of this study showed that people living in the Rif of Morocco are still dependent on medicinal and aromatic plants. The documented plants can serve as a basis for further studies on the regions medicinal plants knowledge and for future phytochemical and pharmacological studies.

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Background: The aim of these studies was to assess the potential of the Rif (northern Morocco) with regard to medicinal and aromatic plants used in the treatment of respiratory system diseases. Methods:The ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies were conducted in the Rif region for two campaigns (June 30th, 2016 to June 1st, 2018). In total, 674 local traditional healers were interviewed. Information was collected using open-ended and semi-structured interviews, analyzed and compared by quantitative ethnobotanical indices such as family importance value (FIV), relative frequency of citation (RFC), plant part value (PPV), fidelity level (FL) and informant consensus factor (ICF) were used to analyze the obtained data. Results:The study identified a total of 41 medicinal plant species belonging to 22 botanical families. The most important family is that of the Lamiaceae represented by 8 species. Concerning the diseases treated, Asthma have the highest ICF (0.97), the leaf was considered the most used part of the plant (PPV=0.482) and the majority of the remedies were prepared in the form of decoction. Conclusions:The results of these present studies showed the existence of indigenous ethnomedicinal knowledge of medicinal and aromatic plants in the Rif to treat respiratory system diseases. Further research on phytochemical and pharmacological should be considered to discover new drugs from these documented plants.

Background: since early times, the people of Morocco use medicinal plants as traditional medicine to treat diabetes. However, little studies have been made in the past to properly document and promote the traditional knowledge. This study was carried out in the Rif (North of Morocco), it aimed to identify medicinal plant used by the local people to treat diabetic problems, together with the associated ethnomedicinal knowledge. Materials and Methods:The ethnomedical information collected was from 582 traditional healers using semi-structured interviews, free listing and focus group. Family use value (FUV), use value (UV), plant part value (PPV) and informant agreement ratio (IAR) were employed in data analysis. Medicinal plants were collected, identified and kept at the natural resources and biodiversity laboratory, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra.Results: During the present study 30 medicinal plant species belonging to 14 families has been documented. The most frequent ailments reported were type 1diabetes. The majority of the remedies were prepared from infusion. Leaves were the most frequently used plant part and Rosmarinus officinalis L. was the species most commonly prescribed by local herbalists. Conclusions:The results of this study showed that people Arabs and Imazighen living in the Rif of Morocco are still dependent on medicinal plants. The documented medicinal plants can serve as a basis for further studies on the regions, medicinal plants knowledge and for future phytochemical and pharmacological studies.

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