ETHNO BOTANICAL STUDY ON TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL PLANTS IN GIMBO DISTRICT OF KAFA ZONE, SOUTH-WEST ETHI

Abstract

An ethnobotanical study was conducted in Kafa zone South-west of Ethiopia to assess ethnomedicinal uses of plants by indigenous Kaf icho people. Data on medicinal plants and demography were collected from 342 respondents by using semi-structured interview, focus group discussion and direct guided field walk. Ethnobotanical indices including informant consensus factor (ICF), fidelity level (FL), use value (UV), relative frequency of citation (RFC) and relative importance values (RI) were employed to analyze the data. Moreover; descriptive statistics, independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the ef ects of socio- demographic factors on medicinal plants knowledge of the respondents. A total of 148 medicinal plants documented to treat various humans’ and livestock’s ailments. Of these, 127 plant species were reported as remedies for humans, 17 plants for livestock and 4 plants for both. Asteraceae family 16 (4.7%) was represented by the highest number of medicinal plant species. The Leaves (45%) were the most used plant part for preparing remedies. Oral administration (67.8%) was frequently used route of application. The highest ICF (0.90) was observed for febrile illness category. Hagenia abyssinica and Pycnostachys abyssinica had the highest FL value (100%), whereas Dicliptera laxata was the species with the lowest FL (40%). The relative frequency of citation (RFC) values ranged from 0.005-0.167 and the highest value was for Ruta chalepensis (0.167). The relative importance values (RI) ranged from 0.006-1.16 and the highest RI value was calculated for Erythrina abyssinica (1.16). Of the tested socio-demographic features, gender, age and educational level significantly (p<0.05) af ected the traditional medicinal plants knowledge of the study population. The results of this study shows that the people of Kaf icho still depend on traditional medicine of plant origin, and their indigenous knowledge is instrumental to exploit the most potential plants for further validation studies. Therefore, the medicinal plant wealth of the study area and the associated indigenous knowledge need to be conserved and developed