Ethnoveterinary medicinal plant knowledge and practice among the Zemmour and Zayane tribes in the Middle Atlas region of Morocco.

Abstract

The popular use of medicinal plants in healthcare practices among indigenous communities provides the basis for natural drug discovery development. The present research aimed to document detailed ethnoveterinary knowledge of medicinal plants used for medicinal purposes. The field study was carried out from January 2016 to December 2020 in Zemmour and Zayane tribes (Middle Atlas). In total, 300 local informants were interviewed using open-ended and semi-structured interviews. The benefits, coverage, and importance of ethnoveterinary were expressed through several quantitative indices, including Informant Consensus Factor (FIC), Fidelity Level (FL), Relative Popularity Level (RPL), Rank Order Priority (ROP), and Jaccard Index (JI). A total of 150 plant species belonging to 129 genera and 56 families were found to be used in ethnoveterinary practices. The most commonly used ethnoveterinary plant species in the study areas was Allium sativum L. (16.7%). Leaves were found to be the most frequent plant part used (46.5%). The highest FIC value was 0.9 for digestive disorders. Artemisia herba-alba Asso and Asparagus officinalis L. show a 100% fidelity level for diarrhea and rabies, respectively. Rank Order Priority (ROP) results showed that Eucalyptus globulus Labill. (ROP=74), was the most preferred species for the treatment of fever. The present study showed that local communities in the Middle Atlas consistently know ethnoveterinary plants. We invite the attention of chemists and pharmacologists for further phytochemical and pharmacological investigations of medicinal plants having high ROP, FL, and FIC values in this study.