Au Burkina Faso, les populations rurales dépendent fortement des ressources végétales ligneuses pour la satisfaction de leurs besoins quotidiens. Dans un contexte de pression anthropique croissante, l'évaluation de la vulnérabilité des espèces s'avère un impératif majeur pour permettre la préservation et la gestion durable de ces ressources. Pour ce faire, des enquêtes semi-structurées ont été menées chez les Sénoufo, un des groupes ethniques dominants du Sud-Ouest du Burkina Faso. La vulnérabilité des espèces citées par les personnes enquêtées a été évaluée sur la base d'un indice de vulnérabilité (Iv) établi à partir de six paramètres. Au total, 73 espèces ont été citées pour lesquelles l'artisanat, le bois de feu et la construction se révèlent être les principales causes de vulnérabilité. Certains aspects des croyances traditionnelles s'avèrent cependant favorables à la conservation des ressources végétales ; ainsi, par exemple, certaines espèces sont interdites à la combustion. Cette étude montre que la combinaison des inventaires de terrain et des enquêtes ethnobotaniques est indispensable comme approche fiable pour l'identification des espèces menacées.

BackgroundThe West African country of Burkina Faso (BFA) is an example for the enduring importance of traditional plant use today. A large proportion of its 17 million inhabitants lives in rural communities and strongly depends on local plant products for their livelihood. However, literature on traditional plant use is still scarce and a comprehensive analysis for the country is still missing.MethodsIn this study we combine the information of a recently published plant checklist with information from ethnobotanical literature for a comprehensive, national scale analysis of plant use in Burkina Faso. We quantify the application of plant species in 10 different use categories, evaluate plant use on a plant family level and use the relative importance index to rank all species in the country according to their usefulness. We focus on traditional medicine and quantify the use of plants as remedy against 22 classes of health disorders, evaluate plant use in traditional medicine on the level of plant families and rank all species used in traditional medicine according to their respective usefulness.ResultsA total of 1033 species (50%) in Burkina Faso had a documented use. Traditional medicine, human nutrition and animal fodder were the most important use categories. The 12 most common plant families in BFA differed considerably in their usefulness and application. Fabaceae, Poaceae and Malvaceae were the plant families with the most used species. In this study Khaya senegalensis, Adansonia digitata and Diospyros mespiliformis were ranked the top useful plants in BFA. Infections/Infestations, digestive system disorders and genitourinary disorders are the health problems most commonly addressed with medicinal plants. Fabaceae, Poaceae, Asteraceae, Apocynaceae, Malvaceae and Rubiaceae were the most important plant families in traditional medicine. Tamarindus indica, Vitellaria paradoxa and Adansonia digitata were ranked the most important medicinal plants.ConclusionsThe national-scale analysis revealed systematic patterns of traditional plant use throughout BFA. These results are of interest for applied research, as a detailed knowledge of traditional plant use can a) help to communicate conservation needs and b) facilitate future research on drug screening.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1746-4269-11-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Tuber characteristics and nutrient composition of three morphotypes of Cyperus esculentus tubers and tuber oils were determined. The mean value for length and width of the tuber and one thousand dried tuber weights ranged from 0.98 to 1.31 cm, 0.90 to 1.19 cm, and 598 to 1044 g, respectively. Tubers displayed high level of starch (30.54–33.21 g 100 g−1), lipid (24.91–28.94 g 100 g−1), and sucrose (17.98–20.39 g 100 g−1). The yellow tubers had significantly higher content in lipid compared to black ones. Levels of ascorbic acid, tocopherol, and β-carotene of the three morphotypes differed significantly. Yellow ones (morphotypes 1 and 2) were the richest in tocopherol and the poorest in β-carotene. Saturated fatty acid content of morphotype 2 was significantly lower than that of morphotypes 1 and 3. Morphotype 3 had the significantly lowest PUFA content compared to morphotypes 1 and 2. Morphotype 1 was found to be richer in Ca, Cu, and Mn contents. Al, Mg, P, S, and Si were most abundant in morphotype 2. Morphotype 3 had the highest content of Cl, K, and Zn.

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SummaryWe conducted laboratory tests to assess the sensitivity to the insect repellent 1-piperidinecarboxylic acid, 2-(2-hydroxyethyl)-, 1-methylpropylester (known as KBR 3023 or Picaridin, trade name Bayrepel Ò ) of West African strains of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti and of malaria vectors of the Anopheles gambiae complex, in comparison with the standard repellent N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET). Test mosquitoes were exposed according to a 'separate arms' protocol to logarithmic dose increments applied on one arm of human subjects to evaluate the relative potency, and the median effective dosages (ED 50 and ED 90 ). According to a logistic regression model fitted to the experimental data, the dose-response relationship for the two repellents was the same within each species, thus pooled ED values were assessed for each mosquito separately. The median ED of KBR 3023 and DEET was estimated at 0.78 (95% confidence limits (CI): 0.57-1.04) and at 0.018 lg/cm 2 (0.004-0.052) for mosquitoes of the An. gambiae complex and Ae. aegypti, respectively. ED 90 values were 125.6 (81.4-201.3) and 24.0 lg/cm 2 (5.7-208.5) for An. gambiae s.l. and Ae. aegypti, respectively. The relative potency of KBR 3023 was not significantly different from that of DEET for An. gambiae s.l. (95% confidence limits 0.7-1.0), whereas in the case of Ae. aegypti it was with 95% probability 1.1-2.0 times more potent than DEET. On the basis of available evidence, KBR 3023 represents a promising alternative to DEET for personal protection against bites of these important vectors of disease in the Afrotropical region.

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