Local indigenous knowledge about some medicinal plants in and around Kakamega forest in western Kenya.
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SUBMITTER: Otieno NE
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3954169 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:* Correspondence: zhouyd@wbgcas [...].
| S-EPMC7154930 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundMalaria remains a major health problem worldwide especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, 80% of the population is at risk of contracting the disease. Pregnant mothers and children under five years are the most affected by this disease. Antimalarial drug resistance poses a major threat in the fight against malaria necessitating continuous search for new antimalarial drugs. Due to inadequate and inaccessible health facilities, majority of people living in rural communities heavily depend on traditional medicine which involves the use of medicinal plants for the management of malaria. Most of these indigenous knowledge is undocumented and risks being lost yet such information could be useful in the search of new antimalarial agents.Aim of studyAn ethnobotanical survey was carried out among the Luhya community of Kakamega East sub-County, a malaria epidemic region, with the aim of documenting the plants used in the management of malaria.Materials and methodsSemi-structured questionnaires were used to collect information from 21 informants who included traditional medicine practitioners and other caregivers who had experience in use of plants in management of malaria. These were drawn from 4 villages located in Kakamega East sub-county, within Kakamega County based on their differences in topography. Information recorded included plant names, parts used, mode of preparation and administration and the sources of plant materials. A literature search was conducted using PubMed and google scholar to identify the reported traditional uses of these plants and studied antiplasmodial activities.ResultsIn this study, 57% of the informants were aged above 50 years and a total of 61% had either no formal education or had only attained primary school education. A total of 42 plant species belonging to 24 families were identified. Most plants used in the management of malaria in this community belonged to Lamiaceae (18%), Leguminosae (9%) and Compositae (9%) plant families. Plants mostly used included Melia azedarach L, Aloe spp, Ajuga integrifolia Buch. Ham, Vernonia amygdalina Del., Rotheca myricoides (Hochst.) Steane and Mabb, Fuerstia africana T.C.E.Fr., Zanthoxylum gilletii (De Wild.) P.G.Waterman and Leucas calostachys Oliv. Rumex steudelii Hochst.ex A. Rich and Phyllanthus sepialis Müll. Arg are reported for the first time in the management of malaria. Although Clerodendrum johnstonii Oliv. (Jeruto et al., 2011) and Physalis peruviana L.(Ramadan et al., 2015) are reported in other studies for management of malaria, no studies have been carried out to demonstrate their antiplasmodial activity. The plant parts mostly used were the leaves (36%) and stem barks (26%). Majority of these plants were prepared as decoctions by boiling and allowed to cool before administration (66%) while infusions accounted for 28% of the preparations. The literature mined supports the use of these plants for the management of malaria since most of them have demonstrated in-vitro and in-vivo antiplasmodial activities.ConclusionMost of the reported plant species in this study have been investigated for antiplasmodial activity and are in agreement with the ethnomedical use. Two (2) plants are reported for the first time in the management of malaria. There is need for documentation and preservation of the rich ethnomedical knowledge within this community given that most of the practitioners are advanced in age and less educated. There is also the danger of over-exploitation of plant species as most of them are obtained from the wild, mainly Kakamega forest. Therefore, there is need for determining the economically and medicinally important plants in this community and planning for their preservation.
| S-EPMC5176009 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Mwingi District lies within the Kenyan Arid and Semiarid lands (ASALs) in Eastern Province. Although some ethnobotanical surveys have been undertaken in some arid and semiarid areas of Kenya, limited studies have documented priority medicinal plants as well as local people's awareness of conservation needs of these plants. This study sought to establish the priority traditional medicinal plants used for human, livestock healthcare, and those used for protecting stored grains against pest infestation in Mwingi district. Further, the status of knowledge among the local people on the threat and conservation status of important medicinal species was documented. This study identified 18 species which were regarded as priority traditional medicinal plants for human health. In terms of priority, 8 were classified as moderate, 6 high, while 4 were ranked highest priority species. These four species are Albizia amara (Roxb.) Boiv. (Mimosacaeae), Aloe secundiflora (Engl. (Aloaceae), Acalypha fruticosa Forssk. (Euphorbiaceae) and Salvadora persica L. (Salvadoraceae). In regard to medicinal plants used for ethnoveterinary purposes, eleven species were identified while seven species were reported as being important for obtaining natural products or concoctions used for stored grain preservation especially against weevils. The data obtained revealed that there were new records of priority medicinal plants which had not been documented as priority species in the past. Results on conservation status of these plants showed that more than 80% of the respondents were unaware that wild medicinal plants were declining, and, consequently, few of them have any domesticated species. Some of the species that have been conserved on farm or deliberately allowed to persist when wild habitats are converted into agricultural lands include: Croton megalocarpus Hutch., Aloe secundiflora, Azadirachta indica A. Juss., Warburgia ugandensis Sprague, Ricinus communis L. and Terminalia brownie Fresen. A small proportion of the respondents however, were aware of the threats facing medicnal plants. Some of the plants reported as declining include, Solanum renschii Vatke (Solanaceae), Populus ilicifolia (Engl.) Rouleau (Salicaceae), Strychnos henningsii Gilg (Loganiaceae) and Rumex usambarensis (Dammer) Dammer (Polygonaceae). Considering the low level of understanding of conservation concerns for these species, there is need therefore, to build capacity among the local communities in this area particularly in regard to sustainable use of natural resources, conservation methods as well as domestication processes.
| S-EPMC2930631 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundPlants have traditionally been used as a source of medicine in India by indigenous people of different ethnic groups inhabiting various terrains for the control of various ailments afflicting human and their domestic animals. The indigenous community of snake charmers belongs to the 'Nath' community in India have played important role of healers in treating snake bite victims. Snake charmers also sell herbal remedies for common ailments. In the present paper an attempt has been made to document on ethno botanical survey and traditional medicines used by snake charmers of village Khetawas located in district Jhajjar of Haryana, India as the little work has been made in the past to document the knowledge from this community.MethodsEthno botanical data and traditional uses of plants information was obtained by semi structured oral interviews from experienced rural folk, traditional herbal medicine practitioners of the 'Nath' community. A total of 42 selected inhabitants were interviewed, 41 were male and only one woman. The age of the healers was between 25 years and 75 years. The plant specimens were identified according to different references concerning the medicinal plants of Haryana and adjoining areas and further confirmation from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.ResultsThe present study revealed that the people of the snake charmer community used 57 medicinal plants species that belonged to 51 genera and 35 families for the treatment of various diseases. The study has brought to light that the main diseases treated by this community was snakebite in which 19 different types of medicinal plants belongs to 13 families were used. Significantly higher number of medicinal plants was claimed by men as compared to women. The highest numbers of medicinal plants for traditional uses utilized by this community were belonging to family Fabaceae.ConclusionThis community carries a vast knowledge of medicinal plants but as snake charming is banned in India as part of efforts to protect India's steadily depleting wildlife, this knowledge is also rapidly disappearing in this community. Such type of ethno botanical studies will help in systematic documentation of ethno botanical knowledge and availing to the scientific world plant therapies used as antivenin by the Saperas community.
| S-EPMC2826346 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The study of local knowledge about natural resources is becoming increasingly important in defining strategies and actions for conservation or recuperation of residual forests. This study therefore sought to: collect information from local populations concerning the use of Atlantic Forest medicinal plants; verify the sources of medicinal plants used; determine the relative importance of the species surveyed, and; calculate the informant consensus factor in relation to medicinal plant use. Data was obtained using semi-structured forms to record the interviewee's personal information and topics related to the medicinal use of specific plants. The material collected represent 125 plants, distributed among 61 botanical families, with little participation of native plants. This study demonstrated that local people tend to agree with each other in terms of the plants used to treat blood-related problems, but cite a much more diverse group of plants to treat problems related to the respiratory and digestive systems - two important categories in studies undertaken in different parts of the world. The local medicinal flora is largely based on plants that are either cultivated or obtained from anthropogenic zones, possibly due to the use and access restrictions of the legally protected neighboring forest. Despite these restrictions, the species with the highest use-value by this community was Pithecellobium cochliocarpum (Gomez) Macb., a native plant of the Atlantic Forest.
| S-EPMC1291389 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe Mountains of the Western Lesser Caucasus with its rich plant diversity, multicultural and multilingual nature host diverse ethnobotanical knowledge related to medicinal plants. However, cross-cultural medicinal ethnobotany and patterns of plant knowledge have not yet been investigated in the region. Doing so could highlight the salient medicinal plant species and show the variations between communities. This study aimed to determine and discuss the similarities and differences of medicinal ethnobotany among people living in highland pastures on both sides of the Georgia-Turkey border.MethodsDuring the 2017 and 2018 summer transhumance period, 119 participants (74 in Turkey, 45 in Georgia) were interviewed with semi-structured questions. The data was structured in use-reports (URs) following the ICPC classification. Cultural Importance (CI) Index, informant consensus factor (FIC), shared/separate species-use combinations, as well as literature data were used for comparing medicinal ethnobotany of the communities.ResultsOne thousand five hundred six UR for 152 native wild plant species were documented. More than half of the species are in common on both sides of the border. Out of 817 species-use combinations, only 9% of the use incidences are shared between communities across the border. Around 66% of these reports had not been previously mentioned specifically in the compared literature. Only 33 species have similar use reports in both countries, most important of which are Plantago major, Urtica dioica, Picea orientalis, Anthemis spp., Sambucus ebulus, Achillea millefolium, Helichrysum rubicundum, Mentha longifolia, Pinus sylvestris var. hamata, Hypericum perforatum, Tussilago farfara, Helichrysum plicatum, Rumex crispus, Berberis vulgaris, and Origanum vulgare. More than half of species reported in each country were found to have more than one part of the plant valued for medicinal use. The most common way of using plants medicinally in both countries is drinking the water infusion of aerial parts with flowers. Based on CI index value, two-thirds of the salient 15 genera in both countries have use reports in at least seven medicinal use categories. While the most cited category with highest FIC is digestive in Georgia, it is skin category in Turkey. Patterns of medicinal plant knowledge among studied communities appear to be connected with more than one cultural factor, in particular ethnolinguistic diversity, cultural background, and access to multilingual written folk and scientific literature, or probably a combination of various factors.ConclusionConsidering the regions' floral similarity, common historical-cultural contact, and similar livelihood strategies of the communities, shared ethnomedicinal knowledge across the Georgia-Turkey border is quite low. Even though the impacts of accessing multilingual folk and scientific literature are likely to be significant, the factors that shape the medicinal plant knowledge patterns of the communities are shown to be variable among species, needing further research into intracultural diversity and socio-economical conditions, as well as the political history across the border.
| S-EPMC7681977 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Traditional plant knowledge and uses of medicinal wild plants were investigated among the Marakwet community in Kenya. Data were collected through interviews with seven traditional healers and 157 questionnaires for local community members. Traditional names of the plants by traditional healers and local community members were prepared as a checklist. Loss of traditional medicinal names of plants was ascertained with up to 60% overlapping in their nomenclature. The traditional medicinal plants treated 41 diseases within the region, of which local community members understood common ones for treating stomachache (94.8%), diarrhea (70.7%), chest problems (65.5%), and typhoid (63.8%). It was also clear that there was low knowledge index of medicinal plants by the local community members (23.6%) based on knowledge of traditional healers. Clearly, medicinal plants for treatment of malaria, diabetes, tetanus, and pneumonia were recognized by over 40% of the local community members, while plants treating arteriosclerosis, meningitis, arthritis, trachoma, smallpox, rheumatic fever, and gout were known by less than 10% of the respondents. Among plants, the use of roots for treatment was known by over 67% of the local community members compared to fruits, bark, bulb, and flowers (<10%). This low traditional medicinal knowledge in a community relies on the traditional medicinal plants, calling for an urgent need to document the information and perpetuate this knowledge from one generation to another. This can be achieved by collecting the information and developing a database of medicinal plants for future research and potential development of new drugs.
| S-EPMC7149339 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The use of medicinal plants for treatment of humans and animals is entrenched in the Maasai culture and traditional knowledge related to it is passed on from one generation to the next. A handful of researchers have in the past decades documented this knowledge. No single study has documented medicinal plant uses of the Maasai community as a whole. This review provides a consolidated database of the diversity and uses of medicinal plants among the Maasai in Kenya. The study will help conserve traditional medicinal plant knowledge that is valuable for the development of modern medicine. Relevant information on medicinal plants used by the Maasai of Kenya was extracted from journals, books, M.Sc., and Ph.D. dissertations. We found evidence of 289 plant species used by the Maasai of Kenya in traditional medicine. Most species were used to treat health conditions in the categories gastrointestinal and respiratory system disorders. The most used families were Leguminosae, Asteraceae, Malvaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Lamiaceae. Medicines were commonly prepared as a decoction and administered through oral ingestion, with roots reported to be the preferred plant part for medication. The Maasai preference for roots compared to other plant parts may be unsustainable and could threaten species availability in the future.
| S-EPMC7020225 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Most studies of infectious diseases in East African cattle have concentrated on gastro-intestinal parasites and vector-borne diseases. As a result, relatively little is known about viral diseases, except for those that are clinically symptomatic or which affect international trade such as foot and mouth disease, bluetongue and epizootic haemorrhagic disease. Here, we investigate the seroprevalence, distribution and relationship between the viruses involved in respiratory disease, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus (IBR), bovine parainfluenza virus Type 3 (PIV3) and bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) in East African Shorthorn Zebu calves. These viruses contribute to the bovine respiratory disease complex (BRD) which is responsible for major economic losses in cattle from intensive farming systems as a result of pneumonia. We found that calves experience similar risks of infection for IBR, PIV3, and BVDV with a seroprevalence of 20.9%, 20.1% and 19.8% respectively. We confirm that positive associations exist between IBR, PIV3 and BVDV; being seropositive for any one of these three viruses means that an individual is more likely to be seropositive for the other two viruses than expected by chance.
| S-EPMC5040193 | biostudies-literature
Project description:For a long time, the people of Saudi Arabia have been using medicinal plants (MPs) as conventional medicine to heal diverse human and livestock diseases. The present work is the first study on ethnobotanical uses of 124 MPs species used by the local tribal communities of Jazan province in the Southwest of Saudi Arabia. Ethnobotanical data were collected by interviewing 174 local informants using semistructured interviews. Informants of different ages, from several settlements belonging to several tribal communities, were interviewed. It is worth noticing that the age of informants and their knowledge of MPs were positively correlated, whereas the educational level and MP knowledge of participants were negatively correlated. To find out if there was agreement in the use of certain plants in the treatment of given ailments, we used Informant Consensus Factor (ICF). To determine the most frequently used plant species for treating a particular ailment category by local people we used the fidelity level (FL%). The Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) was used to indicate the local importance of a species and the relative importance (RI) level was used to check the therapeutic potentials of the cited plants. A total of 124 MPs belonging to 103 genera and 48 families were collected and identified. The majority of these plants were shrubs (45%), perennial herbs (21%), annual herbs (19%), or trees (18%). The Asteraceae (10.48%), Fabaceae (7.25%), and Apocynaceae (7.25%) families were the most represented. Leaves, fruits, and whole plant (24%, 18%, and 16%, respectively) were the most used plant parts in formulating traditional medicines. Ziziphus spina-christi and Calotropis procera with the highest RI level (2.0) were found to have the highest range of therapeutic uses. They were followed by Datura stramonium (1.86), Withania somnifera, and Aloe vera (1.81). The ICF ranged from 0.02 to 0.42 covering 12 disease categories with a prevalence of disease categories related to skin and hair problems (ICF=0.42) having 75 species cited, while 73 species were cited for gastrointestinal tract (GIT) disorders (ICF = 0.40). Senna alexandrina (67%), Tribulus terrestris (64%), Pulicaria undulata (60%), Leptadenia pyrotechnica (55%), and Rumex nervosus (55%) had the highest FL which indicates their good healing potential against specific diseases. The high-FL species are the most promising candidate plants for in-depth pharmacological screening and merit further consideration. Accordingly, Jazan flora has good ethnobotanical potential. Unfortunately, many MP species are endangered by drought, overgrazing, and overexploitation. Some protection measures should be undertaken to prevent these species from becoming extinct. Natural reserves and wild nurseries are typical settings to retain medically important plants in their natural habitats, while botanic gardens and seed banks are important paradigms for ex situ conservation.
| S-EPMC6582903 | biostudies-literature