Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants in traditional markets of Son La province, Vietnam

Abstract

Traditional markets in Vietnam are considered as important places for trading medicinal plants and also play a social role of exchanging traditional use of herbal medicine among different cultural and social groups at the local level. This study aims to identify and document medicinal plants used in 32 traditional markets of Son La province. Data were obtained through interviews and field observation method. A total of 167 informants include 13 herbalists, 49 herbal sellers, and 105 local people were interviewed. The study collected a total of 99 plant species belonging to 88 genera and 57 families. Identified plant species are used by local people for the treatment of 61 different diseases. Leaves, stems and roots are most commonly used either fresh, dried or by decocting the dried parts in water. In the study, the Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) ranged from 0.02 to 0.44; the Use Value (UV) ranged from 0 to 0.84; the Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) ranged from 0.84 to 1; the Fidelity Level (FL) ranged from 44.44% to 100%. Villagers view and our observations confirmed that knowledge about the number of medicinal plants available in the study area and used by interviewees positively correlated with the threats on medicinal plants in the wild habitats. Illegal and unsustainable exploitation by the local people is a major cause of their depletion from nature.

Traditional use of medicinal plants in the Chyangthapu-Phalaicha biological sub-corridor, Panchthar District, Kangchenjunga Landscape, Nepal

“…The dominant use of underground parts may be linked to the presence of bioactive compounds in these parts [102][103]. These results agree with the previous studies [25,64,65,78,92,[104][105][106][107][108][109]. Harvesting of the underground parts must be monitored at regular intervals for the sustainable use of the medicinal plant species [25,110].…”

“…In some cases, honey, cow milk, chicken egg, rock sugar, salt, and mouse droppings were [76,87,102,106,107,117]. In the present study, oral administration was reported for the majority of remedies (63%), followed by topical administration (32%) and inhalation (5%) ( Table 4).…”

“…The method of preparing and mode of administrating herbal remedies are related to the bioactive compounds present in the plant extract [87,116]. Oral and topical modes of administration have been the preferred, easiest, and most effective practice in delivering bioactive compounds into the body [76,87,102,106,107,117]. In the present study, oral administration was reported for the majority of remedies (63%), followed by topical administration (32%) and inhalation (5%) (Table 4).…”

Traditional use of medicinal plants in the Chyangthapu-Phalaicha biological sub-corridor, Panchthar District, Kangchenjunga Landscape, Nepal

“…The dominant use of underground parts may be linked to the presence of bioactive compounds in these parts [76][77][78]. These results agree with the previous studies [23,49,50,63,[79][80][81][82][83][84][85]. Harvesting of the underground parts must be monitored at regular intervals for the sustainable use of the medicinal plant species [23,86].…”

Wild food plants and fungi sold in the markets of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR

“…Although surveys of wild edible plants and fungi sold in Southeast Asia are rare, some research effort has been put into studying the socioeconomic aspects of “green” open markets in general [ 44 – 47 ] as well as the contamination of plants with heavy metals [ 48 ] or parasites and pathogens [ 49 – 51 ]. Some studies from Southeast Asia performed in open air markets concern plant genetic resources from a single species, genus or family; the identification of the main cultivated plants (e.g., [ 52 – 56 ]); or medicinal plants [ 24 , 57 ].…”