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The most used medicinal plants by communities in Mahaboboka, Amboronabo, Mikoboka, Southwestern Madagascar
- Source :
- Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2017.
-
Abstract
- s Background This 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. Methods Semi – 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. Results A 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. Conclusions This 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. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13002-017-0147-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
0106 biological sciences
Cultural Studies
Health (social science)
Adolescent
Ethnobotany
Biodiversity
01 natural sciences
Health(social science)
Interviews as Topic
Young Adult
Medicinal plants
Arid areas
Madagascar
Humans
Traditional knowledge
Medicine, African Traditional
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Plants, Medicinal
Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
biology
Traditional medicine
Research
Healthcare
Fabaceae
Middle Aged
biology.organism_classification
Leonotis nepetifolia
0104 chemical sciences
010404 medicinal & biomolecular chemistry
Geography
Taxon
Complementary and alternative medicine
Female
Rural area
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Cedrelopsis grevei
010606 plant biology & botany
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17464269
- Volume :
- 13
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....02c327027e59027d31df3afe0e008f42