Ethnobotanical Survey of Chamaerops humilis L. in the Rural Commune of Sidi Youssef Ben Ahmed, Sefrou Province, Morocco

Abstract

Chamaerops humilis L. is one of the numerous medicinal herbs which provides beneficial properties and is used in folk medicine to treat different ailments in the rural commune of Sidi Youssef Ben Ahmed province of Sefrou, Morocco. The current study was conducted to carry out an ethnobotanical survey of the uses of Chamaerops humilis L. in the commune of Sidi Youssef Ben Ahmed province of Sefrou in Morocco. A total of 100 respondents were interviewed using a structured questionnaire to determine the uses, used parts, domain, therapeutic indications, and maturation period of C. humilis L. The results obtained indicated that the study plant was frequently used by respondents over 60 years old (44%). Married women who did not have any form of education were the most predominant users. Parts of the study plant used by the respondents were the leaves (45%), fruits (34%), pulp (21), mainly prepared by decoction (61%) method, which contributes to an effective treatment agent for diabetes, digestive disorders, and urinary tract infections. The finding of this study has provided scientific justification for the use of Chamaerops humilis L. by the rural commune of Sidi Youssef Ben Ahmed province of Sefrou, Morocco.

Ethnomedicinal use, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of Chamaerops humilis: A review

“…In 2021, C. humilis was reported as a medicinal plant for the treatment of urinary tract infections, digestive disorders, and diabetes (Nekhla et al, 2021). Numerous researchers reported C. humilis secondary metabolites collected in different region including phenols, sterols, terpenoids, polysaccharides, and fatty acid (Left et al, 2013;Nehdi et al, 2014;Ahmed et al, 2015;Siles et al, 2015;Khoudali et al, 2016;Coelho et al, 2017;Gonçalves et al, 2018;Mokbli et al, 2018;Aicha et al, 2019;Cadi et al, 2021;Rincón-Cervera et al, 2023).…”

“…In folk medicine, several ethnobotanical researches reported the use of C. humilis in traditional medicine to treat numerous diseases, essentially diabetes (Nekhla et al, 2021). It is used to treat other diseases such as gastrointestinal disorders, diarrhea, gastritis, gastralgia, constipation, neuronal diseases, and anemia (Bouyahya et al, 2017;Hasnaoui et al, 2011Hasnaoui et al, , 2013Medjati et al, 2019).…”