Abstract
sBackgroundThis paper reports a study undertaken in three remote communities (Mahaboboka, Amboronabo, Mikoboka), located in Sakaraha, Southwestern Madagascar. Not only villages are far away from sanitary infrastructures and doctors but drugs and consulting fees are unaffordable to villagers. They rely essentially on natural resources for health care as for most of rural areas in Madagascar. This paper aims to document medicinal plants used by communities in Sakaraha and to present the most important plant species used in traditional medicine.MethodsSemi – structured interview was conducted within 214 informants in 34 villages of the study area. Different ailments encountered in the site study were classified in various categories. For data analysis, frequency of citation (Fq), Informant Consensus Factor (Fic), Fidelity Level (FL) and Use Value (UV) were assessed to find agreement among informants about the use of plants as remedies. Mann-Whitney, Kruskall-Wallis and Spearman correlation tests were performed to determine use of medicinal plants following social status of informants.ResultsA total of 235 medicinal plant species belonging to 198 genera and 75 families were inventoried. The richest families in species used for medicinal purposes were: Fabaceae, Apocynaceae, Rubiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Asteraceae, and Poaceae. Plant species cited by informants were used to treat 76 various ailments classified in 13 categories. Leaves and leafy twigs were the most used plant parts and decoction was the mostly cited way of preparation of these medicinal plants species. In average, local people cited 6.7 ± 6.03 medicinal taxa among them, Cedrelopsis grevei is the most cited medicinal plants (Fq. 0.28). With Cedrelopsis grevei (UV = 0.48), Henonia scoparia (UV = 0.43) are mostly used species. Leonotis nepetifolia (FL = 96%) and Strychnos henningsii (FL = 92%) are plant species claimed by high percentage of informants to treat the Digestive System Disorder.ConclusionsThis study highlighted that medicinal plants used by people from three communities in the Southwestern Madagascar are diverse. These plants species ensure care to all family members including babies, children, mothers and adult people. Through this study, newly reported medicinal plants were identified for further work.
Highlights
This paper reports a study undertaken in three remote communities (Mahaboboka, Amboronabo, Mikoboka), located in Sakaraha, Southwestern Madagascar
This paper aims to document medicinal plants used by communities in Sakaraha and to present the most important plant species used in traditional medicine in these communities
These indications embraced both men and women, little babies to elders. They were sorted in 13 categories such as: Blood and Cardio-Vascular Problem (BCVP), Cranial System (CS), Dental Health (DH), Digestive System Disorder (DSD), General Ailments (GA), Infectious Diseases (ID), Muscular Skeletal System (MSS), Nervous System (NS), Pregnancy, Birth and Puerperium (PBP), Reproductive System (ReprS), Respiratory System (RespS), Sensory
Summary
This paper reports a study undertaken in three remote communities (Mahaboboka, Amboronabo, Mikoboka), located in Sakaraha, Southwestern Madagascar. Due to health facilities that do not meet standards, together with poor sanitary infrastructures and unmotivated medical staff [1], unaffordable drug costs and high consulting fees, use of medicinal plants is often part of the first resort delivered and the only accessible therapy to people from several localities in Madagascar [2,3,4] including communities from remote areas like Mahaboboka, Mikoboka and Amboronabo. Traditional healers are called in different ways according to their ethnic group, their region or their ways of healing for example, “Mpanazary” (sorcerer in Betsimisaraka ethnic group), “Mpitana” (guardian of talismans for Merina ethnic group), “Ombiasy” (Spirit healers in the southern Madagascar) [5]. In general plants accompany those different process of traditional healing
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