Sustainable management of pastoral resources requires knowledge in terms of floristic diversity and productivity of the rangelands. The objective of the present study carried out in the Bamboutos Mountains was to assess the floristic diversity and carrying capacity of the natural pastures. Floristic inventory was done using the method of quadrat point aligned in 15 plots of 400 m². Aerial phytomass of herbaceous plants was measured by the full harvest method. A total of 74 species, including 09 woody plants belonging to 56 genera and 20 families were recorded. The number of taxa recorded in the plots varied from 11 to 36 species. Imperata cylindrica with a specific contribution of presence of 17.45% was the most abundant species in the rangeland. The species-richest families were Poaceae, Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Cyperaceae. The calculated pastoral value of the pasture was 56.21%. These pastures were dominated by phanerophytes (29.72%) and therophytes (24.32%). The forage productivity of the grazed area, estimated based on the regrowth biomass was 6498.57 kg DM/ha while the carrying capacity of the rangeland was 2.31 TLU/ha. These results showed that the fodder potential of the Bamboutos Mountains is enough diversified but remains under exploited.
COVID-19 is a severe acute respiratory syndrome-related corona-virus SARS-CoV-2, that constitutes a pandemic threat to global public health. Unfortunately, there are no specific available therapies. This research work presents the findings of an investigation on traditional Cameroonian remedies of respiratory tract infections, malaria and viral infections, and also recipes that could serve as a baseline for the prevention, alleviate symptoms, treatment and perhaps may help for the anti-COVID-19 drugs discovery. Data on the medicinal plants were collected from traditional healers, Cameroonian medicinal plants books, the internet, and in addition to our personal experience as researchers and herbalists. Details of 85 plant species used to manage these three mentioned diseases in Cameroon and their pharmacological properties are recorded. Due to their ethnomedicinal uses and pharmacological activities, twenty-eight (28) plant species and 13 recipes are suggested for COVID-19 prevention, alleviate symptoms, treatment and baseline for anti-COVID-19 drug discovery. Amongst the proposed plants we have the following, Curcuma longa, Azadirachta indica, Zingiber officinale, Allium sativum and Ocimum gratissimum which were reported to possess certain inhibition properties against COVID-19 protease.
A b s t r a c t A r t i c l e I n f oThe savannas of the Western Highlands of Cameroon are exploited for agricultural and pastoral activities. These savannas are still poorly studied and its sustainable management requires knowledge in terms of flora. This study aimed to assess the floristic diversity of savannas of the Western highlands of Cameroon. The basic data on the floristic composition were collected to inventory plant diversity in 72 plots of 100 m². The species richness and biological diversity indices were used to express diversity. In this study, 260 flora species belong to 165 genera and 72 families were surveyed from April 2013 to August 2015. The most frequent and most abundant species were Imperata cylindrica and Hyparrhenia involucrata. The families with the greatest number of species were Poaceae (49); Asteraceae (35), Fabaceae (25), Rubiaceae (11), Hypericaeae (7) and Moraceae (7). The Shannon diversity index (5.2), equitability of Pielou (0.97) and Simpson diversity index (0.66) values were high. The great diversity of Western highlands savannas is linked to the diversity of the observed biotopes.
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