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Abstract
Kidney disease is one of the most common health problems and kidney failure can be fatal. It is one of the health disorders associated with extreme pain and discomfort in patients. In developing countries, such as Morocco where socioeconomic and sanitary conditions are precarious, medicinal plants are considered the primary source of medication. In the present work an ethnobotanical survey was conducted in a remote area of North-Eastern Morocco and we focused on (1) establishing a record of medicinal plants used traditionally by local people to treat kidney diseases and (2) correlate the obtained ethnomedical use with well-studied pharmacological evidence. From February 2018 to January2020, information was gathered from 488 informants using semi-structured questionnaires. The data were analyzed using three quantitative indices: The use value (UV), family use value (FUV), and informant consensus factor (ICF). A total of 121 plant species belonging to 57 botanical families were identified to treat kidney diseases. The families most represented were Asteraceae (14 species), followed by Lamiaceae (12 species) and Apiaceae (10 species). The most commonly used plant parts were leaves, followed by the whole plant and they were most commonly prepared by decoction and infusion. The highest value of the (UV) index was attributed to Herniaria hirsuta L. (UV = 0.16), and the highest family use value (FUV) was assigned to Caryophyllaceae with (FUV = 0.163). Regarding the informant consensus factor (ICF), this index’s highest values were recorded for kidney stones (ICF = 0.72). The use of 45% of the selected plants were validated based on literature review. This study helped document and preserve crucial traditional plant knowledge of 121 plant species used to treat kidney problems that can be used in the search for new biologically active compounds through more upcoming pharmacological studies.
Highlights
Nowadays, kidneys and their problems have gained increasing interest concomitant with life changes, industrialization and malnutrition
Several researches conducted in different regions of Morocco indicated that people excessively use medicinal plants to meet their healthcare needs in Morocco [3,4] and it is due to several factors, such as the high cost of conventional medicines, the lack of adequate sanitary facilities, and frangible socioeconomic conditions of users, especially those living in poor, remote areas and their safety and low incidence of adverse effects [5]
This local cultural and natural heritage is threatened with extinction. The decrease of these phyto-therapeutic practices and the degradation of phyto-genetic resources are due to several factors, mainly the lack of documentary databases related to traditional medical practices and the scarcity of ethnobotanical information archives aggravate this natural and cultural heritage loss. These ancestral medical practices in this country, we found that there are many investigations carried out in different regions of Morocco that deal with traditional use of medicinal plants for the treatment of renal diseases
Summary
Kidneys and their problems have gained increasing interest concomitant with life changes, industrialization and malnutrition. Several researches conducted in different regions of Morocco indicated that people excessively use medicinal plants to meet their healthcare needs in Morocco (at least 75% of the population) [3,4] and it is due to several factors, such as the high cost of conventional medicines, the lack of adequate sanitary facilities, and frangible socioeconomic conditions of users, especially those living in poor, remote areas and their safety and low incidence of adverse effects [5]. As other regions of Morocco, people living in North-Eastern Morocco have a common cultural past that dates back to the Arab civilization in the seventh century. The original cumulative culture has maintained a well-developed traditional knowledge of medicinal plants’ uses that form the basis of the traditional medical system existing until now [6,7]
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