ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN HORO DISTRICT, HORO GUDURU WOLLEGA ZONE OF OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

An Ethinobotanical study of medicinal plants was carried out from September 2019 to June 2020 in Horo district, Horo Guduru Wollega Zone of Oromia regional state, Ethiopia. The study focused on the investigation of the traditional uses of medicinal plants and associated indigenous knowledge of the local people in the study area. A total of 70 informants (50 males and 20 females) aged between 20 -100 years were randomly selected from five kebeles.Out of these 10 key informants were selected by purposing sampling method based on information obtained from the local people and as well as own back ground information. Relevant information were collected by using semi-structured interview, guided field walk, group discussion and market survey. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), preference ranking, paired comparision and Direct matrix ranking. A total of 112 medicinal plant species which distributed across 104 Genera 50 families were identified. Of these a large number of medicinal plants were collected from the wild 70(62.5%), where as 42(37.5%) from home gardens. Asteraceae consisted of 10 species followed by Solonacieae with 9 species. About 80(71.43%) of medicinal plants were reported for treatment of humans, while 20(17.86%) were for livestock ailments. In addition,12(10.71%)were reported for treatment of both human and livestock ailments. In the study area, leaves (47.61%) and roots (21.43%) were the two most frequently utilized plant parts for preparation of remedies.Crushing which accounted for 27.94% waidely used method of preparation of traditional medicine in the study area. This is followed by powdering (26.47%) where as, large numbers of the medicinal plants were cited to be used in fresh forms, few were used dry. The most common mode of administration was found to be oral (61.03%) followed by dermal accounted for (29.41%). The different use categories of medicinal plant taxa in the area included food, firewood, charcoal, construction and forage. Major conservation threats included agricultural expantion, overgrazing, fire wood collection, charcoal production, cutting down trees for construction and furniture .There was no record that indicated the sever concervation impacts of overharvesting of medicinal plants and their parts in the current study area. In addition, to the aforementioned positive attitude of the local communities to the conservation of natural resources, supplementary environmental education with regared to sustainable uses of medicinal plants could be useful.