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Majority of the Ethiopian population relies on medicinal plants for managing their health conditions. However, there are few studies that assessed the use of these medicinal plants especially for diabetes mellitus where the concomitant use of these remedies with modern medicines may lead to negative health consequences. The aim of this study was therefore to assess the prevalence of concomitant use of medicinal plants with conventional medicines among patients with diabetes attending treatment in five referral hospitals across five regions of the country and to identify the commonly used medicinal plants for diabetes. The study used a cross-sectional design where structured interview questionnaires and data abstraction forms were used to collect the data which was then analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that 47.8% of the study participants had ‘ever used medicinal plants’ to treat their diabetes; of whom 74.7% reported to have co-used them with modern medicines. Of the participants who reported concomitant use, only 24.0% knew of the possible safety concern of medicinal plants or their possible interactions with modern medicines. Furthermore, only 15.7% of these participants had ever discussed their use of medicinal plants with their physicians or pharmacists. Twenty-nine plant species were listed by the study participants that were reportedly used for diabetes and related conditions. The most frequently mentioned plants were Shiferaw (Moringa stenopetala) , Damakase (Ocimum lamiifolium) , Nech-Shinkurt (Allium sativum) , Tenadam (Ruta chalapensis) , Abish (Trigonella foenum-graecum) , Tosign (Thymus schimperi) , Tikur-Azimud (Nigella sativa) , and Haregresa (Zheneria scabra) . The overall findings are indicative of the need to educate patients and providers about the potential implications of the concomitant use of medicinal plants with modern medicines, and the need for further research to establish the potential interactions of some of these medicinal plants with limited or no reported data. Keywords: medicinal plants, modern medicine, diabetes mellitus, cross-sectional study, Ethiopia

Since time immemorial food preservation has been a common practice. Most of these preservatives come form natural sources such as herbs and spices. Currently, synthetic antioxidants are extensively incorporated in foods and cosmetics for the prevention of lipid peroxidation. Some of these synthetic antioxidants, however, have been shown to be carcinogenic and since quite recently, efforts are underway to develop effective and safer natural antioxidants targeting mainly herbs and spices. In Ethiopia, the aerial parts of Lippia adoensis var. koseret and Ocimum basilicum var. purpurascens, rhizomes of Zingiber officinalis , and seeds of Aframomum corrorima are used to spice cooking butter and also to preserve its freshness for a long time. The volatile oils of these plants, obtained by hydrodistillation, and the methanolic extract of spiced butter were tested for their radical scavenging activity using TLC and 2,2- diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The antioxidant principles of the examined volatile oils were detected in the methanolic extract of the cooking butter spiced with the four plants. Quantitative studies showed that the volatile oils were able to reduce the stable radical, DPPH to the yellow coloured 2,2-diphenylpicrayl-1-hydrazine in a dosedependent manner. The strongest effect was exhibited by the essential oil of the aerial parts of O. basilicum var. purpurascens (IC 50 = 0.04 µl/ml) whereas the weakest effect was shown by that of the seeds A. corrorima (IC 50 = 34.9 µl/ml). The antioxidant potentials of the oil obtained from the aerial parts of L. adoensis var. koseret and the rhizomes of Z. officinalis were somewhat intermediate (IC 50 = 6.13 and 9.66 µl/ml, respectively). The results of this study may provide a rational explanation for the traditional use of these plants to prevent rancidity and preserve the freshness of cooking butter, which could be attributed to their radical scavenging activity. Keywords : spiced butter, volatile oils, TLC analysis, antioxidant activity, DPPH assay Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Journal Vol. 23 2005: 7-14