ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN KORE DISTRICT, SOUTHEASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Across the world throughout the age, plants have been an important source of both defensive and curative traditional medicine preparation for human and livestock diseases. However, in the Kore district no ethnobotanical exploration had previously been conducted. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify plant species that are used as traditional medicines for the treatment of human and livestock diseases and to determine and document traditional medicinal plant parts used, their mode of preparation, dosage, route of administration of remedies and associated traditional knowledge in the study area. The result of the survey revealed that a total of 97 medicinal plants belonging to 91 genera and 53 families were identified. From the total plant species (64.9%) were collected from wild vegetation and (15.4%) are from home gardens and the rest of 12.4% are from roadsides, fences, farmlands and villages. In the study area (62.9%) species were recorded for the treatment of human health problems,(20.6%) for livestock and(16.5%) for the treatment of both human and livestock. Leaves were the most frequently used part in preparing herbal remedies. Crushing and oral route of administration were commonly used method of herbal medicine preparation and administration respectively. The most common condition of preparation was fresh form of preparation. Preference ranking analysis showed that Olea europaea ranked first for the most effective medicinal plant to cure wound. Pair wise comparison of medicinal plant shows that Lepidium sativum is the most preferred in treating stomachache. Informant consensus agreement for Febrile illness, Headache, Fever and Dizziness have high Informant consensus factor (0.85). The analysis result of FL shows that Allium sativum scored the highest FL (80%).