Ethnobotanical study of traditional medicinal plants used to treat human ailments by the local people of the Diga District, western Ethiopia

Abstract

Background Plants serve as indispensable sources of traditional medicine for more than 80% of the world's population for the treatment and prevention of various human ailments. The current work was conducted to study the status of traditional medicinal plants and herbal medicine in the traditional healthcare practices of the local community of Diga District/Woreda. Methods The information and data provided by 399 informants were collected via semistructured interviews and six focus group discussions. Ethnobotanical analytical methods, including the use value (UV), cultural importance index (CI), fidelity level (FL), informant census factor (ICF), Smith’s salience index (SS) and relative frequency of citation (RFC), were used to analyze the data. Results During the investigation, 109 different medicinal plants from 98 genera and 48 families were reported to treat 54 different human ailments. Leaves were the most frequently (46.78%) selected parts for use in herbal formulations. In herbal preparation, crushing is the most commonly utilized method, whereas powdering is the least popular method. Skin diseases exhibited the highest informant consensus factor (ICF = 0.97) and were treated with 14 different plant species. Cucumis ficifolius also had the highest relative citation frequency (RFC = 0.88). Agricultural expansion is recognized as the main cause contributing to the degradation of ethnomedicinal plants. Conclusion This study identified various medicinal plant species used to treat human ailments, particularly skin and gastrointestinal problems. Leaves and roots are the most commonly utilized plant parts, but there is a lack of conservation efforts in the study area. Therefore, the findings highlight the importance of conserving and screening key plant species through phytochemical and pharmacological analysis to authenticate indigenous ethnomedicinal practice