Ethnobotanical Study on Plant Used by Semi-Nomad Descendants’ Community in Ouled Dabbeb—Southern Tunisia

Karous, Olfa; Jilani, Imtinen Ben Haj; Ghrabi-Gammar, Zeineb

doi:10.3390/plants10040642

Cited by 42 publications

(33 citation statements)

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“…Furthermore, ethnobotanical surveys are confirming the significance of medicinal plants from a socioeconomic perspective [6,7]. These sorts of surveys are important in preserving the indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants of a particular area [8,9]. These surveys provide a window to discover some new active compounds found in the plants against some deadly diseases [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Quantitative Ethnobotanical Analysis of Medicinal Plants of High-Temperature Areas of Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Usman

Ditta

Ibrahim

et al. 2021

Plants

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Lack of proper infrastructure and the poor economic conditions of rural communities make them dependent on herbal medicines. Thus, there is a need to obtain and conserve the historic and traditional knowledge about the medicinal importance of different plants found in different areas of the world. In this regard, a field study was conducted to document the medicinal importance of local plants commonly used by the inhabitants of very old historic villages in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. In total, 58 plant species were explored, which belonged to 28 taxonomic families, as informed by 200 experienced respondents in the study area. The vernacular name, voucher number, plant parts used, and medicinal values were also documented for each species. Among the documented species, Poaceae remained the most predominant family, followed by Solanaceae and Asteraceae. The local communities were dependent on medicinal plants for daily curing of several ailments, including asthma, common cold, sore throat, fever, cardiovascular diseases, and digestive disorders. Among the reported species, leaves and the whole plant remained the most commonly utilized plant parts, while extracts (38.8%) and pastes (23.9%) were the most popular modes of utilization. Based on the ICF value, the highest value was accounted for wound healing (0.87), followed by skincare, nails, hair, and teeth disorders (0.85). The highest RFC value was represented by Acacia nilotica and Triticum aestivum (0.95 each), followed by Azadirachta indica (0.91). The highest UV was represented by Conyza canadensis and Cuscuta reflexa (0.58 each), followed by Xanthium strumarium (0.37). As far as FL was concerned, the highest value was recorded in the case of Azadirachta indica (93.4%) for blood purification and Acacia nilotica (91.1%) for sexual disorders. In conclusion, the local inhabitants primarily focus on medicinal plants for the treatment of different diseases in the very old historic villages of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Moreover, there were various plants in the study area that have great ethnobotanical potential to treat various diseases, as revealed through different indices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Quantitative Ethnobotanical Analysis of Medicinal Plants of High-Temperature Areas of Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Usman

Ditta

Ibrahim

et al. 2021

Plants

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“…The ethnobotanical use of some of the Tunisian NUPs with interesting medicinal-cosmetic potential such as the non-threatened Teucrium alopecurus ( Figure 7 A,B) and Artemisia campestris subsp. cinerea ( Figure 7 C) is very old [ 62 , 63 , 64 ], and this fact has been recently confirmed during ethnobotanical surveys carried out from 2014 to 2019 [ 65 ]. Fifty-seven compounds have been identified in the essential oil of the Tunisian fox tail germander T. alopecurus [ 66 ] with sesquiterpenes as major constituent (61.3%).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Medicinal-Cosmetic Potential of the Local Endemic Plants of Crete (Greece), Northern Morocco and Tunisia: Priorities for Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Neglected and Underutilized Phytogenetic Resources

Bourgou

Jilani

Karous

et al. 2021

Biology

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Medicinal-aromatic plants (MAPs) are important sources for the development of new valuable products of interest to human and animal health, and are also used as ornamentals for the horticulture industry. However, the increased global demand and the uncontrolled exploitation of these plants constitute a threat to their sustainability. To date, few scientific investigations have focused on MAPs valorization and their domestication. The purpose of this study was to evaluate for the first time the medicinal-cosmetic potential of 399 local endemic Mediterranean plants confined to Crete (223 taxa), the Mediterranean coast-Rif of Morocco (94), and Tunisia (82). The new methodological scheme was developed by experts through three multidisciplinary co-creative workshops and was adjusted by end-users to point-scoring of nine attributes evaluating the potential of the targeted neglected and underutilized plants (NUPs) in the medicinal-cosmetic sector. The results were demonstrated as percentage of the maximum possible score. These assessments were further linked and discussed with respect to feasibility and readiness timescale evaluations for sustainable exploitation of the focal NUPs. A great diversity of local endemic NUPs (30 taxa, 11 families) were associated with interesting medicinal-cosmetic properties (>35% up to 94.44%). Among them, 8 taxa showed the highest medicinal-cosmetic potential (>55% of maximum possible score), half of which are threatened with extinction. Although ex-situ conservation efforts and applied research work are needed to safeguard and unlock the full potential of the local endemic NUPs evaluated herein, the proposed multifaceted evaluation scheme revealed that some local endemic NUPs of the studied regions can be sustainably exploited in short- or medium-term, following successful examples of Cretan NUPs e.g., Origanum dictramnus. The sustainable exploitation of high scored taxa of the studied regions can be fastened through targeted species-specific research bridging extant research gaps and facilitating conservation and stakeholder attraction.

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“…In general, more effective uses of NUPs could support more nutrition-sensitive, resilient, and sustainable agro-alimentary systems. However, coordinated action, as well as basic and applied research, is needed to address many challenges such as domestication and ex-situ conservation concerns, breeding issues, poor consumer appeal, non-extant market niches or low market prices, unknown or difficult agro-processing, and compromised in-situ conservation of these NUPs [ 40 , 41 ], as these are often threatened by habitat degradation and human activities [ 12 , 32 , 33 ]. Yet, NUPs can help to increase the diversification of food production, adding new species to our diets with beneficial properties.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agro-Alimentary Potential of the Neglected and Underutilized Local Endemic Plants of Crete (Greece), Rif-Mediterranean Coast of Morocco and Tunisia: Perspectives and Challenges

Libiad

Khabbach

Haissoufi

et al. 2021

Plants

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The neglected and underutilized plants (NUPs) could become alternative food sources in the agro-alimentary sector, enriching human and animal diets, offering the opportunity for sustainable exploitation, resilience to climate change, and production with resistance to pests and diseases. In the Mediterranean countries, these valuable resources are threatened by climate change, overexploitation, and/or monoculture. In this framework, we evaluated 399 local endemic NUPs of Crete (Greece), the Mediterranean coast, Rif of Morocco, and Tunisia, regarding their agro-alimentary potential, and assessed their feasibility and readiness timescale for sustainable exploitation with own previously published methodology. The methodological scheme was developed by experts in co-creative workshops, using point-scoring of seven attributes to evaluate the potential of the targeted NUPs in the agro-alimentary. Our results showed a diversity of promising local endemic NUPs of different families in the studied regions (Lamiaceae members are prominent), and we outlined the cases of 13 taxa with the highest optimum scores of agro-alimentary potential (>70%). Despite the diversity or the promising potential and current ex-situ conservation efforts to bridge gaps, our study indicated that only a few cases of Cretan local endemic NUPs can be sustainably exploited in the short-term. However, it is argued that many more local endemic NUPs can easily follow sustainable exploitation schemes if specific research gaps are bridged. Since NUPs can help to increased diversification of food production systems by adding new nutritional/beneficial species to human and animal diets, basic and applied research, as well as market and stakeholder attraction, is suggested as prerequisite to unlock the full potential of the focal endemic NUPs in the agro-alimentary sector.

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Ethnobotanical Study on Plant Used by Semi-Nomad Descendants’ Community in Ouled Dabbeb—Southern Tunisia

Cited by 42 publications

References 50 publications

Quantitative Ethnobotanical Analysis of Medicinal Plants of High-Temperature Areas of Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Quantitative Ethnobotanical Analysis of Medicinal Plants of High-Temperature Areas of Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Medicinal-Cosmetic Potential of the Local Endemic Plants of Crete (Greece), Northern Morocco and Tunisia: Priorities for Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Neglected and Underutilized Phytogenetic Resources

Agro-Alimentary Potential of the Neglected and Underutilized Local Endemic Plants of Crete (Greece), Rif-Mediterranean Coast of Morocco and Tunisia: Perspectives and Challenges

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