Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants
Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants
Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants
Ethiopian Journal of
Environment and Development
http://www.du.edu.et/duj
DOI: 10.20372/ejed.v03i2.03
Abstract
An Ethno-botanical study was carried out to investigate the type, associated knowledge and practices of
medicinal plants used by the local people in Ale Special District, SNNPR, Ethiopia. Ninety informants were
selected by preferential sampling technique. Ethnobotanical data about traditional medicinal plant names
and associated knowledge such as use, remedy preparation, administration, and others were collected using
semi-structured interview, field observation, and focus group discussion. Informant consensus, preference
ranking, direct matrix ranking, informant consensus factor and fidelity level were computed. A total of 72
medicinal plant species belonging to 68 genera and 39 families were documented. Among the plant families,
Lamiaceae was found to be the richest plant family with 11 species followed by Asteraceae (5 species). From
medicinal plants recorded in the study area 80.56% were used only to treat human ailments, 8.33% were
used only to treat livestock ailments, and 11.11% were used to treat both human and livestock ailments.
Regarding plant habits, herbs accounted for 51.39% followed by shrubs for 20.83%, trees accounted for
19.44%, and climbers accounted for 8.33%. The most frequently utilized medicinal plant part was leaf. The
most widely used method of preparation was crushing followed by chopping, and powdering. The common
route of administration was oral followed by dermal application. From the plants in the study area, Plumbago
zeylanica, Cucumis ficifolius and Hypoestes forskaolii are popular in the area and some medicinal plants
are more effective in curing ailments like snake bite and malaria (ICF=0.93). Agricultural expansion, over
grazing, over harvesting of plants for different household utensils and other human induced problems were
the major threats of natural habitat in general and medicinal plants in particular. The area is known for
its diverse medicinal plant utilized for curing various ailments in the study area. There was little practice
of medicinal plants conservation in the area. The local government and other concerned groups shall give
emphasis on the conservation of medicinal plants used for treating various types of human and livestock
ailments in the area.
et al., 2002). It is widely used in among societies tion of marginal lands, overgrazing and urbanization
for prevention and treatment of physical and men- appeared to be the major threats to the medicinal
tal disorders (Tesfaye Awas and Sebsebe Demissew, plants in the country (Abebe Demissie, 2001). En-
2009). It is reported that more than 3.5 billion peo- demic medicinal species restricted to Ethiopia are of
ple in the developing countries depend on traditional primary concern to Ethiopia and to the world as well
medicines of plants for the treatment of both hu- and thus need serious attention (Endashaw Bekele,
man and livestock diseases (FAO, 1997). 70 to 80% 2007).
of people in Africa consult traditional practitioners
for their health care. According to Cotton (1996), Even though the country has high potential of tradi-
over centuries, indigenous people have developed tional plants and associated indigenous knowledge,
their own locality specific knowledge on plant use, the effort to use this available resource and knowl-
management, and conservation. Conservation of edge scientifically is less. The knowledge and tech-
ethnobotanical knowledge as part of living cultural nical skills regarding preparation of remedies from
knowledge and practices between communities and traditional medicinal plants are fragile and may eas-
the environment is essential for biodiversity conser- ily be forgotten as most of the medicinal plants are
vation (Martin, 1995; Balick and Cox, 1996). kept secret (Gidey Yirga, 2010a). Documentation of
medicinal and other ethno-botanical uses of medici-
In Ethiopia, though there were some ethnomedici- nal plants in the country is an urgent task to rescue
nal studies carried out by various scholars, there is the rapid loss of the natural habitat of these plants
limited development of therapeutic products. Knowl- and the knowledge and practice of medicinal plants
edge about the use of plants is transferred for one use. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim of
generation to another (Fiseha Mesfin et al., 2014). In investigating medicinal plants used by the Ale people
most places of the country, knowledge on medicinal for the treatment of various ailments and document-
plant’s use has been passed verbally from one gen- ing the indigenous knowledge of the community on
eration to the next through traditional healers (Haile use and conservation of various medicinal plants in
Yineger and Delenasaw Yewhalaw, 2007; Tesfaye Ale District.
Awas and Sebsebe Demissew, 2009; Gidey Yirga,
2010a; Gidey Yirga, 2010b; Fiseha Mesfin et al.,
2014). In this course of knowledge transfer, valuable
information can be lost whenever a traditional medi- 2 Material and Methods
cal practitioner or healer passes away without trans-
ferring his/her traditional medicinal plant knowledge 2.1 Description of the Study Area
and its practice to others.
Indigenous knowledge on usage of medicinal plants Ale Special District is situated between of 05◦ 20′
as folk remedies are getting lost owing to migration - 05◦ 4′ N latitude and 37◦ 00′ - 37◦ 25′ E longitude
from rural to urban areas, industrialization, rapid (Figure 1). The Special District was one of the five
loss of natural habitats and changes in life style former Districts of the Segen Area People’s Zone in
(Gidey Yirga, 2010c). Population pressure, environ- SNNPRS. Kolango was the administrative town of
mental degradation, agricultural expansion, loss of the Special District which is located at a distance of
forests and woodlands, overharvesting, fire, cultiva- 645 km south of Addis Ababa.
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ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN ALE SPECIAL DISTRICT, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
Table 1 Sampled kebeles for data collection and their proportional sample size
Sampled Kebeles Elevation range (in m asl.) Number of traditional healers Proportional Sample Size
Dega-Mashille 2000 – 2800 12 9
Delbena-Gama 1600 – 1900 22 17
Gargama 1700 – 1800 19 15
Goroze 1650 – 2100 21 16
Lalicho 1900 – 2300 16 13
Qerqerte 500 – 1500 26 20
Total 116 90
2.3 Data Collection and Analysis ranked by ten randomly selected members of FGD
participants using the scale of 1 (least preferred) to
Types of Data Collected and Method of Collec- 5 (most preferred).
tion
The medicinal plants that were used for preference
In the study area, relevant primary data regarding
ranking were Acmella caulirhiza, Crabbea velutina,
the medicinal plants used to treat human and live-
Encostema axillare, Plumbago zeylanca, and Rhami-
stock ailments and the associated knowledge such
nus prinoides. Each informant was undertaken the
as plant parts used, plant habits or growth forms,
ranking independent of the other informants.
remedy preparation methods, route of administration
of remedies, dosage, disease treated, threat to medic- The overall ranking of the medicinal plants presented
inal plants, and conservation practice were gathered. for this particular ranking exercise was then made
Semi-structured questionnaire and FGD guide were by taking the sum of all rank values given for each
developed and utilized for data collection. More- medicinal plant. Similarly, ranking was done in a
over, guided field observation was taken place as a similar manner for threats to the existing medicinal
means of data collection methods. Medicinal plants plants in the study area.
mentioned by the local healers were observed and
recorded.
Direct Matrix Ranking
Voucher specimens were collected pressed, dried,
Direct matrix ranking was undertaken to compare
and taken to the National Herbarium (ETH) for tax-
medicinal plants commonly reported for their mul-
onomic characterization and identification. Plant
tipurpose use (Martin, 1995; Cotton, 1996) in the
identification was made using published volumes of
study area. Besides the medicinal value, medicinal
Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea and comparing with
plants in the study area was categorized based on
the existing plant specimens in the Herbarium.
their use value as fodder, edible, construction mate-
rials and farm implements, firewood, charcoal, live
Preference Ranking fence, and timber. Six medicinal plants were pre-
sented for ten randomly selected FGD participants
Preference ranking, one of the techniques used for to independently give a score of 0 to 5 (0=not used,
ethno-botanical and ethno-medicinal studies data col- 1=less used, 2= moderate, 3= good, 4= very good,
lection (Martin, 1995) was applied in this study dur- and 5= the best) for each medicinal plant based on
ing the FGD. During the preference ranking exercise, its use category. The overall ranking of the mul-
five medicinal plants that were reported in the study tipurpose plants under investigation was made by
area for their potential to cure tonsillitis (the most comparing the sum of all use values given to each
frequently reported ailment in the study area) were plant.
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ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN ALE SPECIAL DISTRICT, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
Informant Consensus Factor major ailments and Iu is the total number of infor-
mants who indicate the plant for any major ailment.
The Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) is the factor
used to calculate the level of homogeneity between
information provided by different informants (Trot-
2.4 Data Presentation and Analysis
ter and Logan, 1986). Accordingly, ICF was calcu-
lated using Equation 2 for each category of ailments Data collected for this study was summarized and
in the study area showing agreement of informants presented in tables and charts. Ethno-botanical data
on the reported use of medicinal plants for curing analysis methods such as preference ranking and
group of ailments (Heinerich et al., 1998). direct matrix ranking for selected medicinal plants
Martin (1995) and Cotton (1996) were used for data
nur − nr analysis in addition to percentage and frequency,
ICF = (2) which are descriptive statistical methods. Moreover,
nur − 1
narrative statements were given for some qualitative
data gathered through questionnaires.
Where, ICF= informant consensus factor; nur = num-
ber of use citation in each category; and nt = number 3 Results
of species used
Ethnomedicinal Plant Species Composition in
the Study Area
Fidelity Level A total of 72 medicinal plants belonging to 68 Gen-
Fidelity Level (FL) was used to indicate the use of eras and 39 Families were documented in Ale Spe-
a given medicinal plant for a particular purpose in a cial District (Annex). Of the top five species rich
given cultural group or area (Friedman et al., 1986). plant families, Lamiaceae had 11 species, Asteraceae
Relative healing capacity of each medicinal plant in contained 5 species, and the remaining three fami-
the study area was analyzed by FL index (Equation lies – Acanthaceae, Fabaceae, and Solanaceae each
3). represented by 4 species of medicinal plants.
Table 2 Number of medicinal plant categorized in their growth forms and target of application
Detail description regarding the name of medicinal According to the information gathered from the study
plant species documented at study area, plant growth area, different plant parts are used as medicines by
form or habit, plant parts used to prepare remedies, the local people. From the parts reported, the most
disease treated, mode of preparation of remedies, frequently utilized plant part was leaf. Roots of
and mode of application is given in Annex. medicinal plants were the second widely used for
medicinal purpose next to leaves (Figure 2).
Figure 2 Medicinal plant parts used for remedy preparation in the study area
Methods of Remedy Preparation in the study area. The preparations of remedies vary
based on type of disease treated and the actual site
Though higher number of herbaceous medicinal
of the illness.
plants documented in the study area, majority of
the remedies were prepared from dry plant materials The primary method of remedy preparation in the
than the fresh ones. study area was reported to be crushing of plant parts,
and was accounted for 32.32% of the reported rem-
On the course of remedy preparation to treat hu-
edy preparation methods in the study area. Whereas,
man and livestock ailments, the local community
chopping, powdering, and pounding were accounted
employed number of methods of remedy preparation
for 16.16%, 13.13%, and 10.10% respectively (Fig-
for various ailments. A total of 99 remedies were
ure 3).
reported to be prepared from the 72 medicinal plants
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ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN ALE SPECIAL DISTRICT, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
Modes of Administrations and Dosage of Reme- be treated. Accordingly, ailments that require oral
dies application of remedies were reported to frequent.
As a result, oral application was a primary mode
The mode of administration of the traditional reme- of administration accounted for 59% which is fol-
dies by traditional healers in Ale District depends lowed by external (dermal) and ocular applications
on the nature of remedy and the type of disease to accounted for 24% and 7% respectively (Figure 4).
Direct matrix ranking On the other hand, the selected plants were used
for firewood, which was ranked the 1st , followed by
In additional to their medicinal value, some medici-
their values for medicinal purpose and source of con-
nal plants were used for other purpose. Accordingly,
struction materials and farm implements as 2nd and
Cordia africana ranked 1st as multiuse medicinal
3rd respectively. The total score of data matrix from
plant followed by Eucalyptus globulus and Moringa
informants is given in Table 4.
stenopetalla which ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Table 4 Direct matrix ranking of six medicinal plants (The numbers under each use category are the sum of all scores
given by the ten informants)
e
io
r
d
e
nc
oa
Pa
Medicinal
er
in
ct
oo
be
Fe
Score
ic
ru
rc
dd
w
le
m
ed
Plants
ha
re
st
ib
ve
Fo
Ti
M
on
Fi
Ed
Li
C
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ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN ALE SPECIAL DISTRICT, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
Informant Consensus and ranked the 1st accounting for 43.3%. The top
ten plants that had higher citation are given in Table
From the total medicinal plants documented,
5.
Plumbago zeylanica was cited by 39 in informants
Fidelity Level highest ICF value (0.93) was obtained from cate-
gory of problems where snake bite and malaria were
The result of the study showed that the effectiveness contained in. Whereas the least ICF value (0.76)
of medicinal plants against a given ailment was vary- was obtained for category consisting muscular rigid-
ing from one plant to another. Medicinal plants that ity at the neck, swelling around neck region, breast
had the capability of treating a number of specific swelling, and mumps. ICF or human disease cate-
diseases had given a high ICF value. Therefore, the gories in the study area is given in Table 6.
Fidelity level indicates that the comparison of rela- indicated that they had good healing capacity from
tive healing capacity of medicinal plant species for which Cucumis ficifolius and Plumbago zeylanica
particular disease. Fidelity levels of top ten medic- both ranked 1st with respect to their relative healing
inal plants are given in Table 7. These medicinal capacity of specific ailments.
plants were observed to be with high fidelity level
Table 7 Top nine medicinal plants with their respective Fidelity level values
Iu is the total number of informants who indicate the plant for any major ailments.
Threats to Medicinal Plants and Conservation plants in the study area is given in Table 8. Accord-
Practices ing to the informants and personal observation of
the researcher, the natural vegetation in the entire
Different anthropogenic factors were threatening study sites were cleared from the area for the contest
medicinal plants in the study area. The information of agricultural expansion. Overutilization of plant
from informants showed the most mentioned threats resources by the local communities were also seen
to medicinal plants include agricultural expansion, except for some remnant patches in midlands and
wood cutting for different purpose, overgrazing, char- highlands as well as Afromontane forest of Deneko
coal making, firewood, timber, and drought. The high lands. These areas were covered by densely
result of preference ranking of threats to medicinal populated bushes, shrubs, herbs and trees.
Respondents
Threatening Factors Total Score Rank
R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10
Agricultural expansion 5 4 4 5 4 3 5 5 4 5 44 1st
Overgrazing 4 3 5 3 5 4 4 4 5 3 40 2nd
Firewood 2 2 3 1 2 1 3 1 3 2 20 4th
Cut for various purpose 3 5 2 4 3 5 2 3 1 4 32 3rd
Drought 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 14 5th
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ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN ALE SPECIAL DISTRICT, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
and dosage of remedies administered to treat human problems that frequently occur in their respective
and livestock ailments. Variation on the measure- locality and the choice of the informant is mainly
ment of most remedy administered for particular depends on the efficacy of the medicinal plants uti-
ailments in the study area was documented from one lized. This indicated that the medicinal value of
locality to another as well as healer to healer. some plants in the study area was high in relation to
other medicinal plants investigated.
Values of Medicinal Plants and Preference by the
Local Community Acquisition and Transfer of Knowledge of Tradi-
tional Medicine
Some medicinal plants such as Cordia africana, Ter-
minalia browni, Cupressus lustanica, Eucalyptus Traditional healers were found to play an important
globulus, etc. have had high use value than others role in the primary health care system of the local
and used for various purpose by the local community people as they treat people who have little access to-
beside their medicinal value. It was observed that and unable to afford the cost of- modern medication
these plants were highly threatened in the area except (Gidey Yirga, 2010a). The transfer of knowledge
Terminalia browni, which is highly adaptive in the takes place only along family line mostly from par-
area and kept as agroforestry tree in the farm lands ents to one of their respective family members ver-
and fallow lands. The use of these multipurpose bally. As they indicated this transfer of knowledge
medicinal plants for other purpose may contribute takes place when the healer is getting older. This
for the loss of medicinal plant in the study area since transfer may not take place if the healer passes away
they were frequently used for purposes other than suddenly prior to the transfer of the knowledge to
medicine. his family members. This phenomenon limited the
spread of ethno-medicinal knowledge in the study
Results from informant consensus factor showed that area.
medicinal plants that were used frequently are cho-
sen in advance by the local healers to treat particular According to information documented from infor-
problems for which the local people need potential mants and other local elders, most of the traditional
cure. It also implied that these medicinal plants are healers were not volunteered to show the type of
effective in treating particular ailments and have high the plant used as a remedy rather they kept as se-
importance since they are applied by many people cret and said that knowledge of medicinal plant is
and have been utilized for a long time. one of the income source. They also believe that
when the medicinal plants are disclosed, the heal-
Based on the findings, the ICF of some categories ing capacity of the plant diminishes. Several similar
of diseases was high and it showed there was a good studies have indicated that traditional healers or local
indicator for a high rate of informant consensus on practitioners of traditional medicinal plants were not
the frequent use of some medicinal plants for the interested to disclose and publicize their medicinal
health problems occurring in the area. This would plants knowledge and practice (Haile Yineger and
be due to poor socio-economic as well as personal Delenasaw Yewhalaw, 2007; Mirutse Giday et al.,
and environmental hygiene of the people in the study 2009; Gidey Yirga, 2010b).
area, indicating that category with high ICF was
prevalent and that with low ICF was relatively rare. 4.2 Threats to Medicinal Plants and Conserva-
tion Practices
The result of Fidelity level showed that some medici-
nal plants had high healing potential compared to oth- The result showed that the loss of medicinal plants
ers according to their FL computed. This revealed has occurred by anthropogenic and natural condi-
that some medicinal plants were essential on which tions. Agricultural expansion was the main threats
local people rely on to cure human and livestock to medicinal plants in the study area followed by
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ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN ALE SPECIAL DISTRICT, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
over grazing and cutting of trees used in household those healers who know the plant type as medicine
activities. In lowland areas, shortage of rain due to buy the parts from the market to heal others. Con-
seasonal drought was also considered as threat to sequently, this helped in conservation of medicinal
medicinal plants in the study area and ranked the plants indirectly in the area.
least. These threatening factors might be resulted
from population increase and the demand for farm- Wild medicinal plants were kept in the nearby
lands and grazing lands. patches of forest remnants, fallow lands, agroforestry
areas, in the farmlands for different purpose but not
The degree of threats in the study area varies from only for medicinal determination because medicinal
place to place and species to species. These major values of those plants were known only by the cor-
factors were perceived as predominant threats that responding healers. However, most of informants
contributed to loss of biodiversity in general and reported that people in the study area have awareness
medicinal plants in particular in the study area. This problem to conserve biodiversity in general. This
finding is in congruence with the finding of Zemede revealed that there was no considerable conservation
Asfaw (2001) and Kebu Baleme et al. (2004). practice for medicinal plants in the study area rather
they were conserved indirectly when cultivated in
The result of the information revealed that some of home gardens and farm lands for other purposes.
the medicinal plants such as Cordia africana, Croton Therefore, according to Gidey Yirga (2010a) encour-
macrostachyus, Cupressus lustanica, Moringa sten- aging the local people to cultivate some medicinal
petalla, Terminalia browni, and Rhamnus prinoides plants in their home gardens, or grow together with
have been over used and are being highly vulnerable other crops in their farmlands, and planting as live
and threatened than other medicinal plants in the fences is greatly important for the conservation of
area. These medicinal plants were relatively known medicinal plants in the study area.
for their greater multipurpose values than the other
medicinal plants.
5 Conclusion
Some medicinal plants in places of low and erratic
distribution of rain fall mainly in the low lands of The study carried out in the area showed that Ale Spe-
the District were threatened by drought. This finding cial District is relatively endowed with wide range
is in agreement with the finding of Kebu Balemie et of medicinal plant along with its use, practice, and
al. (2004) associated indigenous knowledge. These medicinal
plants were used for the treatment of both human
Another threat to medicinal plants might be careless
and livestock ailments in the area.
collection of medicinal plants in the area. Some in-
formants harvest the medicinal plants by uprooting, Utilization of traditional medicines extracted from
stem cutting or bark pealing. Even though this care- medicinal plants and the practice was the day to
less harvesting was carried out by few traditional day experience of the local community. The natural
healers, it contributed to the threatening factor of vegetation in the study area was a potential source
medicinal plants in the study area. for medicinal plants as most of the medicinal plants
were obtained from wild and some were obtained
The medicinal plants existing in homegardens of
from home gardens that are cultivated for different
the study area were not been intentionally cultivated
purposes besides medicinal value. Some medicinal
for medicinal purpose except by some traditional
plants were used for other different purposes like
healers rather they were cultivated for their primary
firewood, charcoal, construction and others in addi-
purpose such as food or spice other than medicinal
tion to medicinal purpose. Though the indigenous
value. There are no plant parts sold directly in the
knowledge of the local people to sustainably use the
market purposefully as medicine in the District but
medicinal plants for their need has contributed to bet-
ter manage and conserve this resource in the area, us- Fiseha Mesfin, Talemos Seta, and Abreham Assefa
age of some medicinal plants for other purpose was (2014). An Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal
threatening the medicinal plants in the study area. Plants in Amaro Special District, Ethiopia. A
Moreover, agricultural expansion, and over grazing Journal of Plants, People and Applied Research:
were the major threats to the medicinal plants in the Ethnobotany Research & Applications, 12:341-
study area and in the future, it may affect indigenous 354.
knowledge associated with those medicinal plants.
Friedman J, Zohara Y, Amotz D, and Palewitch D.
(1986). A preliminary classification of the heal-
Acknowledgment
ing potential of medicinal plants, based on a ra-
We would like to acknowledgment the local admin- tional analysis of an ethnopharmacological field
istration at the study area and all the respondents survey among Bedouins in the Negev Desert, Is-
participated during data collection. rael. J. Ethnopharmacol. 16:275-278.
Getachew Addis, Dawit Abebe, Timotewos Genebo,
Conflict of Interest
and Kelebessa Urga (2002). Perceptions and prac-
The authors declare that there is no conflict of inter- tices of modern and traditional health practition-
est. ers about traditional medicine in Shrinke District,
Arsi Zone, Ethiopia. Ethiop. J. Health Dev.,
16(1):19-29.
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Annex
List of Medicinal Plants Used to Treat Human and Livestock Diseases in Ale Special District
Key to Abbreviations: Plant habit (T-Tree, Sh-Shrub, H-Herb, and Cl-Climber), Applied to (Hu-Human, Ls-Livestock,
and Bo-Both)
*Endemic plants
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ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN ALE SPECIAL DISTRICT, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
*Endemic plants
*Endemic plants
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