St John Bosco's College, Navorongo, Ghana.
Pharm Biol. 2012 Jul;50(7):807-15. doi: 10.3109/13880209.2011.633920. Epub 2012 Apr 3.
The Sisala traditional healers of northwest Ghana have a rich ethnomedical tradition. The purpose of this study was to collect and analyse data on medicinal plants commonly used by Sisala traditional healers.
A total of 30 traditional healers were interviewed using a mixture of open- and closed-ended questionnaires after obtaining prior-informed consent. Plant materials of each species of medicinal plant mentioned being used were collected and processed as voucher specimens following standard ethnobotanical methods.
The majority (65%) of traditional healers were males, age ≥ 38, and their knowledge about medicinal plants was acquired orally largely from their parents (81.3%). A total of 35 species of plants were reported used to treat 24 diseases. Most (55%) of the plant materials were harvested from the bush and about half (54.8%) of the healers collected plant materials in the morning. Leaf (20%) and root (17.5%) plant materials were most commonly used in the preparation of 27 herbal remedies for treatments. The modes of administration of the herbal remedies were both through internal and external routes.
The results of this study show that Sisala traditional healers possess rich traditional knowledge about medicinal plants and new therapeutic use claims for 34 medicinal plants used in Ghana and widely within Africa are documented for the first time.
加纳西北部的锡萨拉传统行医者拥有丰富的民族医学传统。本研究旨在收集和分析锡萨拉传统行医者常用药用植物的数据。
在获得事先知情同意后，采用开放式和封闭式问卷对总共 30 名传统行医者进行了访谈。根据标准的民族植物学方法，收集并处理了每种药用植物所提到的植物材料作为凭证标本。
大多数（65%）传统行医者为男性，年龄≥38 岁，他们的药用植物知识主要是通过父母（81.3%）口头传授获得的。共报告使用了 35 种植物来治疗 24 种疾病。大多数（55%）的植物材料是从灌木丛中采集的，大约一半（54.8%）的行医者在早上采集植物材料。在制备 27 种草药治疗方法中，最常使用的植物材料是叶（20%）和根（17.5%）。草药的给药方式既有内服也有外用。
本研究结果表明，锡萨拉传统行医者拥有丰富的药用植物传统知识，并且首次记录了在加纳和非洲广泛使用的 34 种药用植物的新治疗用途。
