Ethnoveterinary medicines in four districts of Jimma zone, Ethiopia: cross sectional survey for plant species and mode of use.

Yared Yigezu,Wubeante Yenet Ayen,Demissew Berihun Haile

doi:10.1186/1746-6148-10-76

Yared Yigezu, Wubeante Yenet Ayen + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-10-76

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Abstract

BackgroundTraditional medicines have been used for nearly 90% of livestock populations in Ethiopia where complimentary remedies are required to the modern health care system. All plants with pharmacological activity complimentarily prescribed as best choice against livestock diseases. A community based cross - sectional survey was conducted to investigate ethno-veterinary knowledge and practices of study area by purposive sampling techniques. The data from respondents were collected through face-to face interview using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires, which was further accompanied by field observations of the medicinal plants. The vast majority of the statistics were analyzed descriptively by SPSS 16 Windows version to extrapolate our findings in ethno-botanical knowledge.ResultsIn the study, a total of 74 species of ethnoveterinary medicinal plant species from 31 families have been identified for treating 22 different livestock ailments. The three families: Asteraceae, Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae make up larger proportion of reported medicinal plants which accounted for 10.41%, 8.33% and 6.25%, respectively. Of reported medicinal plants, 16.7% informant consensus was recorded for the species Croton macrostachyus Del., 10.7% for Nicotiana tabacum L. and 9.5% for Olea capensis L.Subsp. macrocarpa (C.H. Wright) I.Verd. in treatment of one or more veterinary ailments. The greater varieties of medicinal plant species that accounted for 28.2% were used against management of blackleg which was common livestock diseases in the study area. The findings showed, trees accounted for 43.24%, followed by shrubs (33.78%) and herbs (14.86%). Eighty one percent of medicinal plants reported by respondents were collected from wild habitats, and leaves reported to be used by 68% of the informants for ethnoveterinary medicines preparations. The preparations were applied through different routes of administration; oral administration accounted for (76.2%), followed by application of topical (9.53%) and nasal (5.19%).ConclusionsEthnoveterinary practices significantly suggested to play greater roles in livestock health care as an alternative or integral part of modern veterinary practices. The traditional knowledge in treatment of livestock diseases of the study districts needs further scientific evaluations by phytochemical and antimicrobial experimentation to determine safety, efficacy, mode of delivery, drug development and dosage in pharmacological laboratory.

Highlights

Traditional medicines have been used for nearly 90% of livestock populations in Ethiopia where complimentary remedies are required to the modern health care system
Data from our study suggested that the highest number of plant species was found in Asteraceae family with (10.41%) followed by Cucurbitaceae (8.33%) and Solanaceae (6.25%)
It was observed that females’ knowledge in medicinal plants is by far limited to plants, which are found in domestic environments like Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Ocimum lamiifolium Benth., Nicotiana tabacum L., Lepidium sativum L. and Allium sativum

Summary

Introduction

Traditional medicines have been used for nearly 90% of livestock populations in Ethiopia where complimentary remedies are required to the modern health care system. Diversity of plant species which have pharmacological activities were identified so far and the active ingredients are extracted mainly from the root, stem, and leaf parts that processed to administer through appropriate routes [3]. They traditionally learned to diagnose clinical features of endemic animal diseases by the use of traditional equipments like bamboo syringes, stone tourniquets, animal horn products, squashing with their hands, and wood forceps to determine dosage, and prepare remedies from local medicinal plants. With a view of those traditional practices, the world health organization (WHO) declared the important roles of ethno-botanical products in veterinary and human medicines in the Alma-Ata proclamation in 1978. In 1996, the American Veterinary Medicine Association officially stated that botanical products are safely used in compliment of National Intervention Program of livestock diseases [8]

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