Potential Toxicity of Medicinal Plants Inventoried in Northeastern Morocco: An Ethnobotanical Approach.

Loubna Kharchoufa,Noureddine Bencheikh,Christophe Hano,Mohamed Addi,Mostafa Elachouri,Mohamed Bouhrim,Hamza Mechchate

doi:10.3390/plants10061108

Abstract

Herbal medicine and its therapeutic applications are widely practiced in northeastern Morocco, and people are knowledgeable about it. Nonetheless, there is a significant knowledge gap regarding their safety. In this study, we reveal the toxic and potential toxic species used as medicines by people in northeastern Morocco in order to compile and document indigenous knowledge of those herbs. Structured and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, and simple random sampling was used as a sampling technique. Based on this information, species were collected, identified, and herbarium sheets were created. The collected data were analyzed using two quantitative indices: informant consensus factor (ICF) and fidelity level (Fl), as the degree of these indices give an insight into the level of toxicity of a given plant. The results revealed the knowledge of 55 species belonging to 36 families. The most represented families were Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Solanaceae, and Fabaceae. Furthermore, the majority of the species cited were herbs (67%), and the most common toxic parts were seeds, followed by leaves and roots. According to the informant consensus factor, death (0.81%) had the highest agreement, followed by the urological (0.76%) and skin (0.75%) categories. The most significant plants in terms of fidelity level were Solanum sodomaeum L. and Nerium oleander L. for death, Arisarum vulgare O. Targ. Tozz., Mentha spicata L., and Morus alba L. for the digestive category, Petroselinum crispum (Mill.) Fuss. and Citrus x aurantium L. for cardiovascular category, Urtica dioica L. for skin category, Datura stramonium L, and Ephedra altissima Desf. for neurological category, and finally Crocus sativus L. for general and unspecified category. This work highlights a valuable traditional knowledge of poisonous and potential poisonous plants in northeastern Morocco. Further phytochemical and toxicological research is needed to determine the safety of these prized herbs.

Highlights

IntroductionAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of the world’s population, especially people in developing countries, is dependent on traditional medical practices for some aspect of primary health care [4]
According to the results presented in our previous study, Nerium oleander L., Carlina gummifera (L.) Less., Aristolochia fontanesii Boiss. & Reut., and Ricinus communis L. are all considered as severe poisonous plant species [15,29,30,31]
Our finding indicated that the value of the informant consensus factor (ICF) ranged from 0 to 0.81 (Table 3)

Summary

Introduction

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of the world’s population, especially people in developing countries, is dependent on traditional medical practices for some aspect of primary health care [4]. In. Morocco, the use of plants for medical care has been practiced since time immemorial and patients rely more on folk medicine: it is estimated that between 50% and 75% of the local population relies on traditional Moroccan remedies [5,6,7,8,9]. Like other regions in Morocco, the people of the northeastern region of the country are more concerned with the use of herbal medicine, and many of them have been collecting and preparing plants for medicinal purposes and the relief of disease symptoms [10,11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion