Ethnoveterinary knowledge in Pirot County (Serbia)

Abstract

This paper provides essential information on medicinal plant uses in the veterinary ethnopharmacology of Pirot County in Eastern Serbia, known as a relatively isolated, multiethnic, and a traditional agricultural area. The aim of the study was to collect, analyze, and evaluate the medicinal plants' ethnoveterinary knowledge in a Pirot County (2761 km2, total 92,479 inhabitants, of which 34,672 in the rural area). The local inhabitants of the rural area were interviewed by a semi-structured questionnaire to determine how many of them are familiar with the plants' application in veterinary ethnopharmacology. Interviews were conducted in four municipalities of the Pirot County, where the samples of the local rural population included 631 respondents (mean age 50; 45.59% women, 53.41% men) at 144 sites, of which 148 respondents from 92 villages reported the use of plants in veterinary medicine. The data are presented in a tabular manner and include scientific and local names, the part used, pharmaceutical form, therapeutic indication, and mode of administration, followed with several reports. Furthermore, most frequently reported taxa are systemized for each therapeutic group municipality-wise with calculated informant consensus factor. A comparison with previously published data collected from surrounding territories on the Balkan Peninsula was performed by considering the Jaccard index. The survey revealed 192 plants used by the local population for various health indications, of which 46 species were reported for use in veterinary medicine. Plants reported for the treatment of health issues in livestock (206 reports) were distributed in 30 families out of which the main ones being Asteraceae (8 species), Lamiaceae (4 species), Rosaceae (4 species) and the most abundant were Asteraceae (43 reports), Hypericaceae (28 reports), Polygonaceae (26 reports) and Ranunculaceae (23 reports). The most frequently used plants in veterinary ethnopharmacology were Cichorium intybus, Hypericum perforatum, and Rumex patientia. Aerial plant parts were exploited more frequently than underground parts. The mode of administration was primarily oral in the water extract form. The primary reported therapeutic groups were diarrhea (98 reports), wounds (27 reports), dermatological diseases (scabies and pediculosis) (14 reports), and elevated temperature (10 reports). The use of 22 plant species was not reported in other ethnoveterinary surveys in the Balkan Peninsula. Knowledge of plants for veterinary use is still constrained among the population of the rural parts of Pirot County. The study identified plant species used by the local population to deal with health issues in domestic animals. The presented findings of this study can be a good starting point for new phytopharmacological investigations in the veterinary domain.