Background
Traditional health practitioners constitute an important part of the health care system in Burkina Faso, particularly in the supply of traditional herbal medicines. Quality and safety of these medicines rely heavily on practices employed during their traditional development. However, traditional phytopharmaceutical practices are poorly described in Burkina Faso. This study aimed to describe the phytopharmaceutical practices of traditional medicine practitioners in Burkina Faso.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional descriptive ethno-pharmaceutical study, conducted from October 1 to November 30, 2020, among traditional practitioners in four randomly selected health districts: Nongr-Massom (Centre region), Tenkodogo (Centre-East region), Diapaga (East region) and Dafra (Hauts-Bassins region). An anonymous semi-structured face-to-face questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic data and data on raw materials and finished products.
Results
Sixty-seven (67) traditional health practitioners, aged 56 years on average, including a majority of men (72%), participated in the study. Gathering of wild medicinal plants was the main source of raw materials acquisition (51.5%), which were usually leaves (32.3%). These raw materials were usually sun-dried (43.9%) and packaged mostly in plastic bags (37.2%). They were derived from 60 plant species belonging to 33 botanical families. Fabaceae was the most represented family (18.7%) and Khaya senegalensis Juss. (Meliaceae) the most cited plant species (5.2%). The finished products had an average shelf life of 17 months and were usually prepared as a decoction (31.7%) and administered most often orally (71.4%). Gastrointestinal disorders were the main predictable adverse events of the finished products (54%).
Conclusion
This study showed that THPs have important knowledge in the use of medicinal plants, but several shortcomings are observed in their phytopharmaceutical and plant protection practices. Continuous improvement of these practices, through education and training of traditional health practitioners, is essential for the conservation of plant biodiversity and quality assurance of traditional herbal medicines.
Introduction : L’intégration de la médecine traditionnelle dans le système de santé moderne est fortement dépendante de son acceptabilité par les praticiens de ce système. Leur recours à la médecine traditionnelle était jusque-là méconnu au Burkina Faso. But de l’étude : Le but de cette étude était d’estimer la prévalence de l’utilisation des médicaments traditionnels et la fréquence de survenue des événements indésirables parmi les praticiens de santé conventionnels au Burkina Faso. Résultats : La majorité des praticiens enquêtés étaient des femmes (56,1 %) et l’âge moyen s’établissait à 39,7 ±7 ans. Les infirmiers (56,1 %), les sages-femmes (31,4 %) et les médecins (8,2 %) étaient les professions les plus représentées. La prévalence de l’utilisation de médicaments traditionnels durant les douze mois précédant l’enquête était de 75,6 %. Le paludisme apparaissait comme la principale raison médicale du recours aux médicaments traditionnels (28 %). La fréquence des événements indésirables rapportés s’élevait à 10 % et concernaient principalement des troubles gastro-intestinaux (78,3 %). Conclusions : Les praticiens de la médecine conventionnelle ont largement recours aux médicaments traditionnels. Cela suggère l’intégration effective de la médecine traditionnelle dans la pratique biomédicale des soins et la surveillance des risques associés à cette utilisation.
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