Ethnobotanical Study of Wild Medicinal Trees and Shrubs in Benna Tsemay District, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Medicinal plants and knowledge of their uses provides a vital contribution to human and livestock health care needs throughout Ethiopia. Despite the wide role of medicinal-plant use by local communities, traditional utilization and management practices are not well documented. The objectives of this study were to identify wild medicinal trees and shrubs and document indigenous knowledge about their utilization and management practices. Ethnomedicinal data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires, key informant interviews and vegetation inventories. Ethnomedicinal uses of 23 trees and shrubs were identified and documented, of which 56% were used to treat human disease, 35% to treat livestock disease and 9% to treat both livestock and human disease. Root was the most frequently used plant part used to treat human disease, followed by leaf. Human diseases commonly treated using these substances were malaria, wound, tapeworm and stomachache. Oral applications were widely used, followed, in frequency of prescription, by dermal applications. The most commonly treated animal diseases were external parasites, constipation and anthrax. Expansion of agriculture was found to be a major threat to the existence of wild medicinal trees and shrubs in the study area. The study’s results indicated that wild medicinal plants are valuable resources to the local community. Thus, more research needs to be carried out on medicinal efficacies and methods of domestication and propagation of medicinal trees and shrubs.