Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Aden, Aden, Yemen.
J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2024 Jun 19;20(1):62. doi: 10.1186/s13002-024-00698-5.
The traditional knowledge in southern Yemen is rich in wild medicinal and food plants, which has been documented in our previous studies. In addition, other significant and general traditional usage for the daily livelihood requirements of local people (beyond medicinal and food plant uses) has not been studied before and needs urgent documentation.
Ethnobotanical data on of wild plants used by local people in southern Yemen were collected by oral questionnaire interviews. Most informants (n = 1020) were local elderly from 15 different localities in southern Yemen. The local names and non-medicinal and non-food uses of plants were identified and analyzed.
The ethnobotanical data resulted various traditional uses of 73 plant species distributed in 28 families. The most represented families were Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Malvaceae. The most growth forms were trees and shrubs. Seven main and common categories of traditional uses were determined and classified as handicraft, health aids, livestock husbandry and beekeeping, economic and commercial plant products, agriculture tools, construction timber and fuel. The most cited species were identified for Ziziphus spina-christi, Vachellia tortilis, Vachellia nilotica, Anisotes trisulcus, Dracaena hanningtonii (Sansevieria ehrenbergii) and Aerva javanica, which have multi-purpose values of traditional usage. Nine major traditional uses of local wild plants were recorded: handicraft, agriculture tools, products aid general health, economic products, construction timber, livestock husbandry, bee keeping, fuel and ornamental.
Despite the challenges on local traditional knowledge of wild plants, it still requested vital to many usages of traditional life and still have an economic value and heritage required of develop the daily livelihood level of the local people especially in rural areas. This includes the traditional uses of wild plants in handicraft skills, tools of agriculture, constructions. The importance of the continuity of traditional industries and their transmission to generations lies in the local population's reliance on local natural resources without relying on external resources in situations such as wars. This is the first study that contributes to documenting and analyzing the indigenous knowledge on traditional general usage of wild plants in southern Yemen.
也门南部的传统知识中蕴藏着丰富的野生药用和食用植物，这在我们之前的研究中已经有记载。此外，当地居民日常生活所需的其他重要和普遍的传统用途（超出药用和食用植物的用途）以前没有得到研究，需要紧急记录。
通过口头问卷访谈收集了也门南部当地居民使用的野生植物的民族植物学数据。大多数受访者（n=1020）是来自也门南部 15 个不同地区的当地老年人。确定并分析了植物的当地名称和非药用及非食用用途。
民族植物学数据显示，73 种植物分布在 28 个科中，有各种传统用途。最具代表性的科是豆科、菊科和锦葵科。最常见的生长形式是树木和灌木。确定并分类了 7 个主要和常见的传统用途类别，分别为手工艺、保健辅助、畜牧业和养蜂、经济和商业植物产品、农业工具、建筑木材和燃料。最常被引用的物种是刺沙枣、骆驼刺、阿拉伯胶树、三叶鬼针草、龙血树（丝兰）和白茅，它们具有多种传统用途的价值。记录了当地野生植物的 9 种主要传统用途：手工艺、农业工具、一般保健产品、经济产品、建筑木材、畜牧业、养蜂、燃料和观赏。
尽管当地野生植物传统知识面临挑战，但它仍然对许多传统生活方式的用途至关重要，并且仍然具有经济价值和遗产，这有助于提高当地人民的日常生活水平，特别是在农村地区。这包括野生植物在手工艺技能、农业工具、建筑等方面的传统用途。传统产业的连续性及其向后代传承的重要性在于，当地人口依赖于当地自然资源，而不是在战争等情况下依赖外部资源。这是首次对也门南部野生植物传统一般用途的本土知识进行记录和分析的研究。
