Ethnobotanical Study of Plants Used in the Management of HIV/AIDS‐Related Diseases in Livingstone, Southern Province, Zambia

Abstract

Faced with critical shortages of staff, long queues, and stigma at public health facilities in Livingstone, Zambia, persons who suffer from HIV/AIDS-related diseases use medicinal plants to manage skin infections, diarrhoea, sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, cough, malaria, and oral infections. In all, 94 medicinal plant species were used to manage HIV/AIDS-related diseases. Most remedies are prepared from plants of various families such as Combretaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, and Lamiaceae. More than two-thirds of the plants (mostly leaves and roots) are utilized to treat two or more diseases related to HIV infection. Eighteen plants, namely, Achyranthes aspera L., Lannea discolor (Sond.) Engl., Hyphaene petersiana Klotzsch ex Mart., Asparagus racemosus Willd., Capparis tomentosa Lam., Cleome hirta Oliv., Garcinia livingstonei T. Anderson, Euclea divinorum Hiern, Bridelia cathartica G. Bertol., Acacia nilotica Delile, Piliostigma thonningii (Schumach.) Milne-Redh., Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight and Arn., Abrus precatorius L., Hoslundia opposita Vahl., Clerodendrum capitatum (Willd.) Schumach., Ficus sycomorus L., Ximenia americana L., and Ziziphus mucronata Willd., were used to treat four or more disease conditions. About 31% of the plants in this study were administered as monotherapies. Multiuse medicinal plants may contain broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents. However, since widely used plants easily succumb to the threats of overharvesting, they need special protocols and guidelines for their genetic conservation. There is still need to confirm the antimicrobial efficacies, pharmacological parameters, cytotoxicity, and active chemical ingredients of the discovered plants.

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used to manage HIV/AIDS opportunistic infections in Rungwe, Mbeya Region, Tanzania

“…The popular use of leaves and roots for medicine preparations correspond with the report by Chinsembu and Hedimbi (2010). Further, a more recent study in Zambia, confirms leaves being the most used plant parts in making medicine for managing HIV/AIDS opportunistic infections (Chinsembu, 2016). More studies with similar findings include: Giday et al (2010), Otang et al (2012) and Nankaya (2014).…”

“…Generally, the use of medicinal plants has been reported to rise (Moshi et al, 2010;Ekor, 2014;Agisho et al, 2014). The reasons attributed to the trend include; constraints associated with the antiretroviral therapies (Chinsembu and Hedimbi, 2010), modern drug resistance in managing some diseases including HIV/AIDS opportunistic infections and conceived side effects of conventional medicine (Mustapha, 2014), the existing shortage of modern health personnel and stigma (Chinsembu, 2016;Denver et al, 2014).…”

Antifungal Activity of Euclea divinorum Root and Study of its Ethnobotany and Phytopharmacology

“…In addition, in other tropical African countries the most traditional uses of E. divinorum were reported for internal applications [8]. The root decoction of E. divinorum is used in ethnomedicine in Zambia to treat different genital and oral diseases in the case of HIV/AIDS-related diseases [12] and the root bark to treat diarrhoea, cancer and dermal ailments in Zimbabwe [13]. In Kenya, the decoction or infusion of E. divinorum root are used to induce or augment labor [14].…”

The Use of Herbal Medicine in a Rural Community in Vitória Da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil: An Indication for Pharmacological Studies

“…Thus, collection of quantitative data could support the conservation of certain plant species and knowledge of their popular medical use, mainly by informing about species with several therapeutic indications [18,19]. Some of these tools have been successful in identifying the pharmacological potential of medicinal plants, thus enabling their effective application in herbal medicine [20,21,22]. The present study evaluated the ethno medicinal knowledge of the people in the community of São Sebastião, Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, using ethno botanical tools in order to provide baseline information for future ethno pharmacological and phytochemical studies.…”