Ethnobotanical Study of the Medicinal Plants Known by Men in Ambalabe, Madagascar

Rabearivony, Aina D.; Kuhlman, Alyse; Razafiariso, Zo L.; Raharimalala, Fidèle; Rakotoarivony, Fortunat; Randrianarivony, Tabita; Rakotoarivelo, Nivo; Randrianasolo, Armand; Bussmann, Rainer W.

doi:10.17348/era.14.0.123-138

Cited by 132 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Another reason for the low number of records of medicinal palm uses could be that some of the species have their main distribution in protected areas where collection of forest resources is limited or prohibited (Byg & Balslev, ). In fact, all the ethnobotanical surveys that specifically mentioned medicinal uses of palms were conducted near to or in the protected areas Zahamena (Byg & Balslev, , b, ), Lokaro (Lehman, ) and Vohibe forest (Bussmann et al ., ; Rabearivony et al ., ). As a result, local people who use palms growing in the protected areas and buffer zones might not be willing to share that information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Despite access to a great diversity of natural resources, the population of Madagascar (nearly 23 million today; Ethnologue, ) is burdened by economic poverty. Most inhabitants rely on medicinal plants as a primary source of medical care especially in remote areas with limited healthcare alternatives (Golden et al ., ; Lyon & Hardesty, ; Novy, ; Rabearivony et al ., ; Razafindraibe et al ., ). Traditional medicine is often preferred for cultural reasons and traditional values (Novy, ; Randrianarivelojosia et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Medicinal palms (Arecaceae) in Madagascar-undocumented or underutilized?

et al. 2016

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Palms (Arecaceae) are conspicuous in traditional medicine in Africa, contributing to health care of rural and urban dwellers. Palm species richness in Africa is much lower than in either tropical America or tropical Asia, whereas palm species richness in Madagascar is among the highest in the world when its area is taken into consideration. The African continent is 50 times larger than Madagascar, but has only 65 species of palms, whereas Madagascar in a much smaller area has three times as many species of palms. The objective of this survey was to gather all published ethnobotanical data on medicinal uses of palms in Madagascar and to compare this with the extent of palm use in continental Africa. Information on medicinal uses of palms in Madagascar was found in only 13 published references. We found 55 medicinal use records for at least 17 palm species, of which 14 were endemic to Madagascar and three were introduced. The most used palm was Cocos nucifera, followed by Raphia farinifera. For most of the species, however, we found only a single medicinal use. There are many parts of Madagascar yet to be explored for palms. Further studies and collecting trips may generate a more complete picture and suggest answers to why (or if) there are so few medicinal uses of palms in Madagascar compared to other parts of the world.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicinal palms (Arecaceae) in Madagascar-undocumented or underutilized?

et al. 2016

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“…After screening had been completed, ethnobotanical use data for those samples were coded. Two reviews of Malagasy plants used for malaria (Rasoanaivo et al 1992, Randrianarivelojosia et al 2003), as well as several other relevant journal articles and reference works related to Malagasy ethnobotany (Pernet and Meyer 1957; Andriamihaja 1986; Boiteau and Allorge-Boiteau 1993; Rakotobe et al 1993; Novy 1997; Samyn 2001; Gurib-Fakim and Brendler 2004; Norscia and Bogognini-Tarli 2006; Kaou et al 2008; Razafindraibe et al 2013; Rabearivony et al 2015), were reviewed for reports of use of the screened species or genera to treat malaria. Ethnobotanical data were coded as presence or absence of recorded use at both the species level and the generic level.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antimalarial Use of Malagasy Plants Is Poorly Correlated with Performance in Antimalarial Bioassays

et al. 2017

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Bioassay screening of plant extracts can identify unique lead compounds for drug development, but the “hit rate” from random screening is very low. Targeted screening of medicinal plants has been repeatedly reported to increase the percentage of samples displaying bioactivity. Contrarily, Maranz (2012) suggested that African antimalarial plants were unsuitable sources of antimalarial drugs because high prevalence of malaria would result in rapid evolution of resistance to active compounds that directly targeted the parasite. As malaria is highly prevalent in much of Madagascar, it was of interest to determine whether Malagasy antimalarial plants would outperform randomly selected plants in conventional antimalarial assays being conducted as part of a discovery program. Of 1294 plant samples screened for antimalarial activity, 39.6% had an IC50 <50 μg/ml and 21.1% had an IC50 <20 μg/ml (the minimum to qualify as a first-pass “hit”). Ethnobotanical uses were coded at both the generic and the species level, as neither samples nor use reports in literature were always identifiable to species level. The 526 samples belonging to genera having reported uses for malaria were slightly more likely than average to display activity (44.3% with IC50 <50 μg/ml, p < .01; 23.2% with IC50 <20 μg/ml). Of these, 67 samples from individual species with documented use were still more likely to be modestly active (49.3% with IC50 <50 μg/ml), yet less likely to be highly active (17.9% with IC50 <20 μg/ml). Thus, in this specific context, ethnobotanically directed screening would not have substantially improved screening efficiency, and would have missed most of the potential hits.

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“…Also used for the treatment of hypertension (Malik et al 2015). In Madagascar used to treat headache, flu, colds, fever, cough, measles, dizziness during pregnancy and children's epilepsy, back pain and fatigue (Rabearivony et al 2015;Randrianarivony et al 2016a), and in pregnancy (Randrianarivony et al 2016b and for malaria (Randrianarivony et al 2017). In Peru used as laxative, for blood circulation, epilepsy, and heart disease (Bussmann and Sharon 2006).…”

Section: Local Medicinal Usesmentioning

confidence: 99%