Abstract
Indigenous people of a given community have their own local specific knowledge on plant use, management, and conservation. The objective of this study was to document medicinal plants used to treat human and livestock ailments in Hulet Eju Enese Woreda. The data were collected using semistructured interviews, focus group discussions, and field observations with local people. A total of 100 informants over the age of 20 years were selected to collect information on medicinal plant use. Descriptive statistics (percentage and frequency), Jaccard's similarity index, independent sample t-test and analysis of variance, informant consensus factor, fidelity level, preference ranking, and direct matrix ranking were computed. A total of 80 medicinal plant species belonging to 75 genera and 52 families were documented. In terms of species diversity, Solanaceae stood first with 5 species followed by Euphorbiaceae and Malvaceae with 4 species each. Out of eighty medicinal plants, 53 species were used to treat only human ailments, 8 species were used to treat only livestock ailments, and the remaining 19 species were used for treating both human and livestock ailments. From the total medicinal plant species, shrub constitutes the largest number with 42.5% species. The most frequently used plant parts were leaves, accounting for 28.9%. The major routes of administration were oral accounts, 81 (57%), followed by dermal, 45 (31.7%), nasal, 6 (4.2%), and others, 10 (7%). In the disease category with the highest informant consensus factor (0.83) value was sudden sickness. There was highest preference (49) for Phytolacca dodecandra to treat rabies. Cordia africana was shown to be the top multipurpose species. This study revealed that the study area was rich in medicinal plants. Agricultural expansion, charcoal making, and firewood collection were considered major threats to medicinal plants. Therefore, awareness creation to the youth and training to the healers play a pivotal role to prevent the loss of indigenous knowledge.
Highlights
Indigenous people of a given community have their own local specific knowledge on plant use, management, and conservation [1]. is knowledge about plants of their surrounding related to their use, classification, and management practices is generally known as indigenous knowledge or traditional knowledge [2]
The mostly used plant part is leaf followed by root, seed, fruit, and so forth (Figure 3), which is an important finding because harvesting leaves does not have detrimental effects on the survival of the medicinal plants, whereas harvesting roots and whole plants has a negative impact on the survival
The medicinal plants that are widely used by local people to treat several ailments have less fidelity level value, while medicinal plants used to treat one or few ailments have 100% FL. e result of this study shows that Verbena officinalis and Embelia schimperi had 100% FL value. ese medicinal plants have the highest FL values, which could be an indication of their good healing potential in the study area and the others are below 100%
Summary
Indigenous people of a given community have their own local specific knowledge on plant use, management, and conservation [1]. is knowledge about plants of their surrounding related to their use, classification, and management practices is generally known as indigenous knowledge or traditional knowledge [2]. Is knowledge about plants of their surrounding related to their use, classification, and management practices is generally known as indigenous knowledge or traditional knowledge [2]. One type of such knowledge of indigenous people on plants is related to their use in traditional medicine to treat human and livestock ailments [3]. Medicinal plants remain the most important and sometimes the only source of therapeutics. Besides their use in preventing and curing various ailments, some medicinal plants are serving as export commodities and source of considerable income for farmers [5].
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