Medicinal plant use practice in four ethnic communities (Gurage, Mareqo, Qebena and Silti), South Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Ethnic groups throughout the world have developed their own cultures expressed in the form of customs, taboos and traditional healthcare systems. Traditional medicine system is one of the widespread cultures known throughout the world which is very much tied to cultural practices of the community or ethnic group. Medicinal plant treasure found in Gurage and Silti Zones remained poorly characterized and understood. Therefore, this study was conducted in four ethnic groups: three from Gurage zone (Gurage, Qebena and Mareqo) and one from Silti zone (Silti) which have lived in close proximity and contact for many centuries in the respective Zones. In the present study unique and shared cultural elements in connection to traditional herbal medicine were examined through investigation of the diversity of medicinal plants. Moreover, attempts have been made to determine similarities among the society in the medicinal plants they have used in general and in medicinal plant species considered culturally most important.Methods: In a study that involved 320 randomly sampled informants semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation were used and qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Descriptive statistics, rank order priority (ROP), informant consensus factor, jaccard similarity coefficient and clustering were used for data analysis. Results: A total of 244 medicinal plant species and a fungal species used to treat human and/or livestock ailments were documented. The number of plants (80 plants, 33 %) with ROP value greater than 50% is considerably smaller than that of plants with ROP < 50% (164, 67 %). Jaccard similarity index and clustering analysis for all cited plants, among the respective studied districts, indicated that grouping generally followed the existing ethnic origin. On the contrary, clustering based on culturally important medicinal plant species (80 plant species, score ROP ≥ 50%) showed the influence of proximity and geographical orientation rather than ethnic relation. Conclusions: Culturally most important plants (80 spp.) are widely used and best shared with nearby communities and this could imply current (new) knowledge being practiced in the community. This knowledge must be documented and better utilized in a modern way including modernized use of traditional medicinal plants.

Perception of malaria and cultural diversity of antimalarial plants in three sympatric ethnic groups: Agni, Akyé and Gwa of Alépé Department (Southeast of Côte d’Ivoire)

“…Indeed, the common plant species usually shared, are actively used through time and are considered effective. For example, in the South-Central of Ethiopia, four ethnic communities living in two different areas (Gurage, Mareqo, Qebena and Silti), have used the common plants and on the same time are considered effective [13,48].…”

“…In fact, their studies have revealed that the uses of a given wild plant species are speci c to one ethnic group and its culture [12,39]. Otherwise, the knowledge sharing depends on the ethnic groups [13], and the preference of the plant species uses [12]. For example, 14 different ethnic groups in the Northern of Benin, were compared through the uses of the parts of Parkia biglobosa (Jacq.)…”

“…To that purpose, they do not use and value all plant species equally according to their needs in the same practice [12]. Those reasons could hide a variation in the perception of a particular disease and a different signi cance of plants for those communities [13], especially while they share the same geographical area with other communities [14].…”

“…Moreover, those studies analyse whether cultural diversity is re ected in the folk phytotherapy knowledge as shown by [11]. These authors argued, as noted by many others [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]19] that the comparative study of medicinal plant knowledge among sympatric ethnic and/or local groups may be divided into two types. The rst type focuses on traditional groups with comparatively long residence in the region and the second type concentrates on the comparison of medicinal plants use by ethnic groups with different times of residence in a given region.…”

The Use of Medicinal Plants to Prevent COVID-19 in Nepal

“…The use of medicinal plants depends on several covariates, such as occupation, education level, age, class, living condition, and treatment methods that people usually follow. The sociocultural acceptance of people vary within different places and communities [90]. People living in villages most live with their families in Nepal, and studies have found that the use of medicinal plants usually comes from families [91].…”