Medicinal Plant Use and Diversity in the Urban Area of Idiofa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

Medicinal plants are being used by communities worldwide to treat various conditions, diseases, and illnesses. Nevertheless, knowledge of their use is rapidly declining due to factors like accelerated urbanization, globalization, and biodiversity loss. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, deforestation, and urbanization are the main drivers of biodiversity loss. In order to gain insight into how urban communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo use medicinal plants, we conducted an ethnobotanical study in the municipality of Idiofa, Kwilu Province. We conducted 30 semistructured interviews with residents of Idiofa. Medicinal plant use was recorded through free-listing, and data on plants used, administration methods, and sources of used plants were collected. We analyzed use values, informants agreement ratios, plant locations, and plant distributions. In total, we recorded 99 plant species from 46 plant families used in 330 preparations to treat 112 conditions. Anthropized habitats were the primary source of medicinal plants, and the set of plant species collected from these habitats was subject to biotic homogenization, a process whereby native biotas are systematically replaced by cosmopolitan non-natives. The reflection of this biodiversity in the plant use repertoires of our participants suggests that the use of easily accessible plant species is being adopted by the inhabitants of Idiofa. We hypothesize that the loss of natural ecosystems and habitats, along with the homogenization of the present plant biodiversity in anthropized and urban areas, might therefore be important but overlooked drivers of spatial ethnobotanical use and knowledge homogenization.