1
Missouri Botanical Garden, Madagascar Research and Conservation Program,
BP 3391, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
2 Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of Antananarivo, BP 906, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
3 Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis 63130, MO, USA
4 William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis 63166-0299, MO, USA
2 Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of Antananarivo, BP 906, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
3 Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis 63130, MO, USA
4 William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis 63166-0299, MO, USA
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2015, 11:68
doi:10.1186/s13002-015-0050-2
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/11/1/68
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/11/1/68
| Received: | 21 May 2015 |
| Accepted: | 19 August 2015 |
| Published: | 15 September 2015 |
© 2015 Rakotoarivelo et al.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Abstract
Background
Traditional medicine remains the only health care available in many rural areas in
Madagascar like the rural community of Ambalabe, located in a very remote area in
the eastern part of the country. With limited access to modern medicine, the local
population uses medicinal plants to treat most diseases. In this study, we aimed to
inventory medicinal plants used by local people and how those relate to the treatment
of the most frequent diseases encountered in Ambalabe.
Methods
We interviewed participants in order to identify the most frequent diseases in the
region and the medicinal plants used to treat them. The local physician was asked
about the most frequent diseases, and ethnobotanical surveys to record medicinal plants
and their uses, using semi-structured interviews and free listing, were conducted
among 193 informants in local villages, of which 54 % were men and 46 % were women,
ageing from 16 to 86 years. The local names, the uses of each plant species and the
way they are prepared and administered were recorded and accompanied by herbarium
specimens for identification. We also interviewed four traditional healers to elicit
more details on the preparation and the use of plants.
Results
Our research allowed us to identify six most frequent diseases, namely diarrhea, malaria,
stomach-ache, cough, bilharzia and dysentery. Among 209 plant species identified as
having medicinal use, 83 species belonging to 49 families and 77 genera were used
to treat these diseases. Our analyses highlighted the 11 commonly used species for
their treatment, and also 16 species with a high fidelity level (FL ≥ 75 %) for each
ailment. Diarrhea is one of the diseases with high number of species recorded.
Conclusions
This study highlighted the closed relationship between people in Ambalabe and plant
species, especially when faced with frequent diseases. However, most of the species
used were collected in the surroundings of the villages. Few species were from Vohibe
forest in which a management system on the use of plant species was already established.
Therefore, a sustainable use management should be considered for wild species from
which medicinal plants are highly abundant.
