Ethnoveterinary botanical survey of medicinal plants in Abergelle, Sekota and Lalibela districts of Amhara region, Northern Ethiopia.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

The study area is known by its huge livestock resources with extensive ethnoveterinary practice. This knowledge was not documented scientifically until we proposed to do so. The study can aid in future planning of endangered species conservation as well as for experimental studies in search of modern pharmacotherapy.

AIM OF THE STUDY

The study objective was to understand the extent of ethnoveterinary practice, methods, types of medicinal plant species used and to generate a comprehensive baseline data that can be used as a basis for further studies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The survey was conducted from November 2015 to December 2016 in different seasons of the year. Participant selection process was started by recording all the known animal healers by assigning village leaders, animal health professionals, and research field assistants to record all animal healers of the area. Assigned personals communicate elders, and other members of the communities of the 3 districts to recommend the traditional animal healer they know. Accordingly, 60 participants were recommended by the peoples of the 3 districts and the interview process was conducted with a semi-structured questionnaire to record the knowledge of ethnoveterinary practice of the 60 healers. After finishing the interview process, researchers had a walk in the woods, mountains, and rivers with informants to collect medicinal plants. Standard procedures were followed for the record of plant materials, drying, and pressing of plant specimens was performed in the field followed by labeling with the local name, collection date, collection site, and identification code.

RESULTS

A total of 53 medicinal plants that belong to 31 families used in treating 22 kinds of livestock diseases were identified.

CONCLUSION

We found the area has a huge resource of ethnoveterinary medicinal plants. However, overuse and environmental anthropological change resulted in the scarcity of medicinal plants. This condition was complained by healers during the survey.