An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in Sheka Zone of Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: People's classification, management, and use of plants represent attempt to attracting people from different academic disciplines. Many countries use traditional medicine for their primary healthcare system. Medicinal plants have been important components of healthcare systems since the time immemorial. The objective of this research was to document and analyze traditional medicinal plants used by the Sheka people and associated ethnobotanical knowledge. Methods: Data was collected by administering pre-prepared semi-structured interview items to 414 informants. Market surveys, group discussion, and guided field walk were used. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics; determination of informant consensus factor, fidelity level, as well as ranking and scoring. Results: A total of 266 plant species belonging to 192 genera and 74 families were identified. About 204 (77%) of the medicinal plants were used to treat human health problems. Only ten (4%) were used to treat livestock health problems and 52 (19%) of them were used to treat both human and livestock health problems. Croton macrostachyus, Prunus africana, Peperomia retusa, Lobelia giberroa, and Celosia schweinfurthiana were found to be high ranking medicinal plants against gastrointestinal problems based on simple preference ranking. Conclusion: Very high number of medicinal plant species recorded from the study area indicates that vegetation of Sheka is reservoir of medicinal plants. Hence, the area needs attention for medicinal plant conservation priorities. Plant parts used as medicines also play vital role in the entire medicinal plant life cycle. Therefore, it is useful to consider harvesting impacts. Except well-experienced traditional healers, people of the study area use the medicinal plants haphazardly. There may be high risk of being victims of dosage and improper usage. High ranking medicinal plants are candidates for further phytochemical profiling, drug research, and development.

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants, its utilization, and conservation by indigenous people of Gera district, Ethiopia

“…This may be due to local people in the area seek traditional medicine for their ailments first and then try to search for their livestock ailments. Similar to this findings, Kassa et al (2020) reported that most of the medicinal plant in Sheka zone used to treat human ailments (77%) and 19% of medicinal plant was used treat both human and livestock ailments. Most of the medicinal plant species collected and identified in this study were also found to be used in other parts of the country which is in line with the present result (Amsalu et al, 2018;Gebeyehu et al, 2014;Kelayu et al, 2013;Lulekal et al, 2008;Megersa et al, 2013).…”

“…Scientifically, leaves are the most active part of the plant in terms of the production of metabolites (Baydoun et al, 2015;Ghorbani, 2005). This finding agrees with various studies conducted in Ethiopia (Amsalu et al, 2018;Kassa et al, 2020;L. Kidane et al, 2018;Meragiaw et al, 2016;Tefera & Kim, 2019;Zerabruka & Yirga, 2012) reported leaves (32.6%-56% medicinal plants) as the most widely used plant parts.…”

An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used by the Tengger tribe in Ngadisari village, Indonesia

“…fistulosum (71.15) for treating hypertension and cough, respectively. Based on a previous study, plants with a high percentage of FL are more frequently used as bio-pharmacological resources [ 47 ] and should be considered for further conservation program [ 48 ] bioassays and phytopharmacological investigation [ 49 , 50 ].…”

Ethnomedicinal Study of Plants Used against Human Ailments in Aseko District, South East Ethiopia

“…Cluster multi-stage sampling has been used for the selection of study sites. Based on the preliminary survey that survey was conducted from September 10 to 30, 2017, out of 18 Kebeles in Aseko district, three Kebeles (the smallest admistrative unit of the government in Ethiopia), namely Dere Oda from 'Kola', Haro Ale 'Woyenadega' and Dima Aseko 'Dega' have been selected purposively based on agroecological differences, availability of plant resources and medicinal plant knowledge as used by Zewdie Kasa [16]. Key informants (KIs) for Ethnobotanical data collection were purposively selected by snow ball method [1;17;18].…”