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Abstract
This research was carried out to record and document the medicinal plants and associated indigenous plant use knowledge of the local people in Kelala District of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Ethnobotanical data were collected by conducting preprepared semistructured interview items with 60 informants. Focus group discussion and guided field walk were also used. Data were analyzed using basic analytical tools and descriptive statistics. Determination of informant consensus factor, fidelity level, and ranking was performed. A total of 82 medicinal plants distributed in 79 genera and 45 families were collected. Of these plants, 43 species were used to treat human ailments, and 33 species were used to treat livestock ailments and the remaining 6 species were used to treat both human and livestock ailments. The majority of medicinal plants were harvested from the wild environments. The family Solanaceae occupied the first rank with seven species followed by Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Cucurbitaceae, Apiaceae, and Euphorbiaceae with four species each. The most frequently used plant parts were leaves (42.2%) followed by seeds (15.2%), roots (8.1%), and fruits (7.6%). Freshly harvested plant parts (72.68%) were mostly used for remedy preparation compared to dried forms (24.74%) whereas crushing, which accounted for 41.12%, and powdering (24.37%) were the most widely used methods of remedy preparation in the study area. Expansion of farmlands by cutting trees heavily threatens medicinal plants and therefore needs due attention. High ranking medicinal plants are good candidates for further research in drug discovery and development.
Highlights
Plants have a long history of being used for medicinal purposes
Ethiopian medicinal plant inventories including those of [12, 21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28] have attempted to document the importance of traditional medicinal plants in some cultural groups, it is found insignificant when compared to the wide ethnolinguistic communities found in the country, which have remained largely unexplored. erefore, the present study aims to fill this gap by documenting the wealth of indigenous knowledge on utilization, management, and conservation of medicinal plants used in Kelala District, South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia
Of all the medicinal plants recorded in the study area, large proportions of the medicinal plant species (53, 64.6%) were harvested from the wild followed by home gardens (24, 29.3%), and the remaining species (5, 6.1%) were collected from both the wild and home gardens
Summary
About 80% of the developing world’s population still depends on traditional medicines to meet their primary healthcare requirements [1] and many of the modern drugs were derived from traditional uses [2, 3]. Availability, and cultural acceptability of the healthcare service generally affect the use of traditional medicines [4]. Ethiopia is the home for the high diversity of traditional knowledge and practices about the uses of traditional medicine due to the existence of different ethnic groups and complex cultural diversity [8,9,10]. E cultivation and use of medicinal plants in Ethiopia have a long history [12] and about 90% of the population use traditional medicine as their first line of healthcare requirements [13]. The rich indigenous knowledge on many of the traditional plant remedies is subjected to loss as it has mainly been passed orally for generations without being properly nor scientifically documented [17]
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