Abstract
Medicinal plant use culture is very rich in East Anatolia. Hizan district is one of the best examples of this. Hizan has a very hilly topography. In the past, people is living in Hizan developed alternative medicines to treat their illnesses because of geographical structure and harsh winter conditions. This study was conducted in Hizan (Bitlis) district and it was the first investigation of the knowledge of tra-ditional medicinal plants used in Bitlis Province. This research aims to scientifically identify the medicinal plants used by local people and record the culture of traditional medicinal plants use of local people living in Hizan. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with participants with ethnobotanical knowled-ge and experience in 2018 and 2019 and the collected samples were prepared according to herbarium techniques. Consequently 71 taxa belonging to 29 families used for the treatment of 35 different diseases were identified. The traditional medical use of some taxa was specific to Hizan. The results revealed that the taxonomic family with the greatest number of utilized plants was Asteraceae. These are followed by Rosaceae, Lamiaceae, Malvaceae, Polygonaceae and Apiaceae.
Highlights
The fossil records show that the human use of plants as medicines may be traced back at least60 000 years (Solecki, 1975)
This study was carried out to scientifically identify the medicinal plants used by local people living in Hizan district, to record this cultural heritage and to convey it to future generations
The culture of medicinal plant use is very rich in Anatolia
Summary
The fossil records show that the human use of plants as medicines may be traced back at least60 000 years (Solecki, 1975). The fossil records show that the human use of plants as medicines may be traced back at least. According to some researchers (Miara et al, 2019), the great majority of developing countries (80%) use medicinal plants for health purposes. Medicinal plants in rural areas of developing countries have been used as the primary source of medicine in the treatment of human diseases (Palombo, 2009; Sönmez et al, 2019 ). Anatolia is the meeting place of three phytogeographical regions (Euro-Siberian, Mediterranean and lrano-Turanian). It has a very rich flora (Özhatay et al, 2005)
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