Abstract
The knowledge of the plants that are used may provide insight on their properties for further exploration. This study aimed to identify and collect data about medicinal plants used in traditional medicine by the population of the provincial region of Taza, Morocco. An ethnobotanical survey was carried out among 200 informants, competent villagers, herbalists, and traditional healers from the provincial region of Taza city through direct interviews using a structured questionnaire. The survey reported 55 plant species belonging to 28 families used in the folk medicine. Informants' results showed that the most frequently used plants were Origanum compactum, Mentha pulegium, Rosmarinus officinalis L., Aloysia citrodora, Calamintha officinalis Moench, and Artemisia herba-alba Asso., with a relative frequency of citation of 76%, 72%, 60%, 42%, 40%, and 30%, respectively. Moreover, in this study, the Lamiaceae family was the most commonly reported plant family, and the leaves were the most frequently used parts of the plants; otherwise, decoction and infusion were the most used modes in the preparation of remedies from medicinal plants in the traditional medicine. The sociodemographic characteristics showed that women use medicinal plants slightly more than men, the illiterate people use the medicinal plant the most, and old people have more information about the medicinal plants than the new generations. The region of Taza of Morocco has an important floristic biodiversity of medicinal plants which are used in traditional medicine practice. This result provides a good database for pharmacological screening in the search for new plants that can contain new bioactive molecules that can be used as a bioactive ingredient of medicament or as a biological alternative in pharmacology.
Highlights
For a long time, plants have played a very important role in the daily lives of human life [1]
To the best of our knowledge, few works in the literature were interested in this region. us, the aim of this work was to collect information about plant species used in folk medicine by the traditional healers and local population of this region to treat diseases and human pathologies
Plants were grouped into 28 families; this census shows different routes of administration of the drugs, the preparation methods, and the part of the plants used in the traditional medicine as presented in Table 1. e most presented families were Lamiaceae (14 species), Apiaceae (6 species), Asteraceae (5 species), and Myrtaceae (3 species) followed by Cupressaceae, Lauraceae, and Zingiberaceae (2 species)
Summary
Plants have played a very important role in the daily lives of human life [1]. The temperature generally ranges from 5°C to 36°C and is rarely below 2°C or above 41°C. is climate makes this region very rich in plant biodiversity and in wide varieties of indigenous medicinal plants used by the local population in the folk medicine. Us, the aim of this work was to collect information about plant species used in folk medicine by the traditional healers and local population of this region to treat diseases and human pathologies. For these reasons, the current survey was conducted in the provincial area of Taza of Morocco (northeastern Morocco)
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