An Ethnobotanical Survey and Quantitative Study of Indigenous Medicinal Plants Used in the Algerian Semi-arid Region

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 204-219
Author(s):  
A. Kefifa ◽  
A. Saidi ◽  
K. Hachem ◽  
O. Mehalhal

This paper presents the first quantitative ethnobotanical study of the flora in the semi-arid region in the southwest part of Algeria. The aim of this ethnobotanical survey in the region of El Bayadh situated in the semi-arid part of Algeria was to identify the main medicinal plants used by the local inhabitants to treat different diseases and to collect all the data on their therapeutic characteristics. One hundred informants of different ages were interviewed for this study (69 women and 31 men). Both quantitative and qualitative information were collected through open semi-structured face-to-face interviews with the local people. Data were organized and analyzed by descriptive statistics. The ethnobotanical data were analyzed using various important quantitative indices calculated for each of the recorded medicinal plant species like use value (UV), relative frequency of citation (RFC), relative importance index (RII), informants’ agreement ratio (IAR), informant consensus factor (ICF), fidelity level (FL), and family importance value index (FIV). In addition, a correlation analysis was performed to check the level of association between RFC and both UV and RII. It was reported that 44 useful plant species, belonging to 26 botanical families were used in the treatment of various diseases. The Asteraceae family was the most common family (6 species, 13.64%, FIV = 0.94) of all the medicinal plants recorded in this study. Leaves were the most commonly used plant part, accounting for 50.77% of the plants reported. Eighty-three diseases were identified and grouped into eleven categories, dominated by diseases of the nervous system and sensory organs (ICF = 0.94), which were treated with local medicinal plants. There is a clear dominance of Artemisia herba alba Asso. (Chih) in the three important ethnobotanical indices (UV, RFC, and RII).We found in this study five plant species having maximum fidelity level (100%) where they were used to treat only one disease. The Pearson correlation coefficient between RFC and UV (0.986**), and between RFC and RII (0.713**) showed highly positive significant association between RFC and both UV and RI of plant use in the study area. We deduce that herbal medicine is used in selfmedication of the local population; however, we also draw attention to the fact that the incoherent and limitless use of the medicinal flora constitutes a potential risk contributing to the degradation of the plant biodiversity of the area of study. These results may complement the database of the national medicinal flora and support research in phytochemistry and pharmacology to discover new drugs and approve ethnomedicinal knowledge.

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Batista PENIDO ◽  
Selene Maia de MORAIS ◽  
Alan Bezerra RIBEIRO ◽  
Ana Zélia SILVA

ABSTRACT The study of medicinal plants reveals locally important plant species often useful for the discovery of new drugs. The objective of this research was to conduct an ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used by the population of the Imperatriz city, State of Maranhão, Northeastern Brazil. Two hundred and five interviews were conducted, resulting in the collection of 60 plant species from 31 plant families. The highest number of species belongs to Fabaceae, followed by Lamiaceae, Asteraceae and Euphorbiaceae. The most reported species were Chenopodium ambrosioides, Myracrodruon urundeuva, Lippia alba, and Plectranthus barbatus. The main plant parts used were leaves (63.3%), bark (16.7%), fruits (6.7%), roots (6.7%), seeds (3.3), stems (1.7%) and latex (1.7%). Major administration routes were by oral (81.7%) or nasal via (1.6%) and topical application (16.7%) The plants were used to mitigate various health problems including pain, asthma, hypertension, gastritis, inflammation, influenza, and tuberculosis. The collected data shows that local population uses medicinal plants for treatment of several diseases and this study can serve as a basis for future chemical and pharmacological investigation, which can lead to the discovery of new therapeutic agents.


2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávia dos Santos Silva ◽  
Marcelo A. Ramos ◽  
Natalia Hanazaki ◽  
Ulysses P. de Albuquerque

2010 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 674-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecília de Fátima Castelo Branco R de Almeida ◽  
Marcelo Alves Ramos ◽  
Elba Lúcia Cavalcanti de Amorim ◽  
Ulysses Paulino de Albuquerque

Author(s):  
Padam Jee Omar ◽  
Nitesh Gupta ◽  
Ravi Prakash Tripathi ◽  
Shiwanshu Shekhar ◽  
Surender .

The relative evaluation of land use and land cover for various uses such as forest, agriculture and water bodies etc. is the important issue in the semiarid region. Application of Remote Sensing technology for Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) change analysis has been carried out in semi-arid region of Madhya Pradesh, central part of India and found that the use of remote sensing along with Survey of India toposheets could be used appropriately for LULC mapping. The semi-arid regions are characterized by erratic rainfall and high rate of vegetation dynamics. The increasing biotic pressure together with increasing human demands exerts pressure on the available land resources all over the region. Therefore, in order to have best possible use of land, it is not only necessary to have the information on the existing LULC, but also to monitor the dynamic land use resulting because of increasing demands aroused from the growing population. Continuous overexploitation of natural resources like land, water, and forest has caused serious threat to the local population of the semi-arid region. This causes problems like little scope for soil moisture storage, high rate of soil erosion, declining groundwater level and shortage of drinking water


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 001-006
Author(s):  
Gana Benisheikh Ali Abba ◽  
Tom Isyaka Mohammed ◽  
Jibrin Mallam Wali ◽  
Mshelia Madu Adamu ◽  
Kime Mahammed Mahmud ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Savina Asiimwe ◽  
Jane Namukobe ◽  
Robert Byamukama ◽  
Betty Imalingat

Abstract Background Medicinal plants form an integral part of many health care systems in Uganda. This study aimed at documenting the therapeutic importance of plant species used in primary health care among communities living adjacent to Mabira and Mpanga forest reserves in Central Uganda. Methods An ethnobotanical study was conducted between April and June 2018 in 7 villages adjacent to Mpanga and 6 villages adjacent to Mabira central forest reserves. Information was obtained from 28 respondents identified using snowball and purposive sampling techniques and interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data. The quantitative analysis of data was done using fidelity level, informant consensus factor, and percent respondent knowledge indices. Results A total of 136 medicinal plants were recorded. The plant species classified into 55 families were grouped under 14 medical categories with the highest number of plant species being used for digestive disorders (44%), followed by respiratory (38%) and dermatological disorders (36%). Hoslundia opposita Vahl was mentioned by 71% of the respondents for treating 22 disease conditions. Plant Family Fabaceae was the most represented with 16 species. Informant consensus agreement was high (0.7) for respiratory disorders. The fidelity level was 100% for Bidens pilosa L. and Callistemon citrinus Skeels for treating wounds and cough, respectively. Plant remedies were mainly prepared by decoction (31%) and administered orally (36%). A large number of plants (61%) were harvested from wild habitats. Herbs (50%) and leaves (50%) contributed the highest percentage of plant biological forms and parts used in remedy preparation. Conclusion This study recorded plant species with the potential to treat a wide range of illnesses. This is reflected in the high diversity of the recorded species used for medicinal purposes. Pharmacological studies on the plants with high percentage use values and fidelity levels are needed to validate their uses in the management of the said therapeutic applications. Further research on the isolation and characterization of the plant active compounds could lead to the discovery of new potential drugs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 455-467
Author(s):  
Yusufjon Gafforov ◽  
Davron Rakhimov

The first and really only significant data on Botryosphaeriaceae mycobiota from the arid and semi-arid region of Uzbekistan are presented. This study reports 27 species of Diplodia-like fungi (Botryosphaeriaceae) from the study area; nine species are newly reported for Uzbekistan. Most species of Diplodia and Dothiorella were found on host plants of the families Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, Rosaceae, and Salicaceae. An annotated list of Diplodia-like species is given, including their host plant species, notes on taxonomy, ecology, and geographical distributions. A geo-referenced distribution map is included.


Author(s):  
Iago Almeida da Ponte ◽  
Murugan Muthuvel ◽  
Sudarsini Saravanabhavan ◽  
Stephen Rathinaraj Benjamin

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
DeMing Jiang ◽  
ChunPing Miao ◽  
XueHua Li ◽  
XiaoLan Li ◽  
Alamusa ◽  
...  

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