Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants from degraded dry afromontane forest in northern Ethiopia: Species, uses and conservation challenges

Journal of Herbal Medicine

Volume 6, Issue 2, June 2016, Pages 96–104

Research paper

• Kidane Giday^{a, d},
• Lutgart Lenaerts^b,
• Kindeya Gebrehiwot^a,
• Gidey Yirga^{c, ,} ,
• Bruno Verbist^d,
• Bart Muys^d

• ^a Mekelle University, Department of Land Resource Management and Environmental Protection (LaRMEP), Mekelle, Ethiopia
• ^b Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway
• ^c Mekelle University, Department of Biology Mekelle, Ethiopia
• ^d Division Forest, Nature and Landscape, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E-2411, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

Received 18 May 2015, Revised 21 October 2015, Accepted 29 March 2016, Available online 30 March 2016

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doi:10.1016/j.hermed.2016.03.004

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Abstract

The large variation in climate, geology and land forms in Ethiopia has led to a great variety of ecosystems with high plant species diversity. The authors sought to provide a comprehensive documentation on forest based medicinal plants, indigenous knowledge, and conservation challenges in degraded dry afromontane forest in northern Ethiopia. Ethnobotanical data were collected using semi-structured interviews (n = 272) and focus group discussions (n = 26) with key informants. Frequencies were calculated and cross tabulated to see the medicinal value of plants found and effect of demographic characteristics on medicinal plants use. Thirty-four medicinal wild plants species belonging to 33 genera and 26 families used as cure for 35 human and livestock ailments were documented. Shrubs were dominantly used (48.8%), followed by trees (25.6%), and herbs (16.3%). The largest number of remedies (29%) was used to treat gastro-intestinal disorders followed by joint pain (25.8%). The administration routes for human medicines were oral (42%), traditional smoke bath (36%), dermal (7%), nasal (5%) and auricular (2%); while oral (32%), dermal (25%) and tie (27%) were for veterinary medicines. Leaves (33%), roots (22%) and stem (16%) were commonly used plant parts for herbal preparation. The authors suggest encouraging in situ conservation of the existing medicinal plants. As a result of heavy exploitation, many forest associated medicinal plants in the area, like Laggera tomentosa, Phytolacca dodecandra, Verbena officinalis, and Zehneria scabra are becoming rare and difficult to find. The authors suggest domestication of some of the wild medicinal plants by households or usage of communal lands for long term conservation of the species and continued availability for the use by local communities.

Keywords

• Forest relic;
• Indigenous knowledge;
• Biodiversity;
• Sustainable use;
• Desa’a forest

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1. Introduction

Since ancient times plants have been indispensable sources of both preventive and curative traditional medicine preparations for both human beings and livestock. Historical accounts of traditionally used medicinal plants depict that different medicinal plants were in use as early as 5000–4000 BC in China, and 1600 BC by Syrians, Babylonians, Hebrews and Egyptians (Dery et al., 1999). Much of an indigenous knowledge system, from the earliest times, is also found linked with the use of traditional medicine in different countries (Farnsworth, 1994).

Out of a total of 422,000 flowering plants reported from the world (Govaerts, 2001), more than 50,000 are used for medicinal purposes (Schippmann et al., 2002). Almost 80% of the human population in developing countries is dependent on plant resources for healthcare because they cannot afford the high cost of western pharmaceuticals and health-care, and because traditional medicines are more acceptable from a cultural and spiritual perspective (Farnsworth et al., 1985).

Modern pharmacopoeia still contains at least 25% drugs derived from plants harvested from the wild on forest lands and only a very small number of species are cultivated (FAO, 1997). The large variation in climate, geology and land forms in Ethiopia has led to a large variety of ecosystems with high plant species diversity (EFAP, 1994 and Teketay, 2001). As a consequence the country possesses a large potential source of herbal medicine (Desta et al., 1996 and Pankhurst, 2001). This large potential has been made accessible by a rich and long-standing indigenous knowledge on the use of plants in traditional medicine (Balemie et al., 2004), on which 80% of the rural communities in the country depend (Dawit and Ahadu, 1993 and Tesfaye et al., 2009; Birhane et al., 2011). Even in cities where modern health services are more accessible and specialized, many people still continue to go to traditional healers (Lambert, 2001).

The knowledge and use of plants for medicinal purposes is an integral part of many ethnic rural cultures in Ethiopia (Tesfaye et al. 2009). This ancient knowledge about use of traditional medicinal plants is maintained by traditional healers. In the countryside, either the knowledge from herbalists is passed secretively from one generation to the next through words of mouth (Jansen, 1981) or their descendants inherit the medico-spiritual manuscripts (Tilahun and Giday, 2007). As modern medicine is expected to gradually take over, it is therefore timely to conserve and document the wisdom of processing and using these medicinal plants by local healers and communities which otherwise could be lost over time.

The majority of medicinal plants in Ethiopia, with few exceptions, is harvested from wild habitats (Giday, 1999 and Zemede, 1999). Due to human population growth these plants face overexploitation and loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation due to associated land use change (Friis, 1992). There are no specific conservation or resource management measures in place. This may have serious implications on the survival of several of these useful plant species, many of which may face genetic erosion or extinction in the near future.

The harvest and use of forest plants for medicinal purposes is an important provisioning and cultural service (MEA, 2005), in addition to other ecosystem services of the forest (Giday, 1999 and Zemede, 1999). Local knowledge associated with the use of these medicinal plants could become an important argument for the conservation of forest relics as indigenous people living in and around forests are potentially in a good position to know, use and protect biodiversity (Plotkin, 1994).

It becomes clear that both the conservation of indigenous medicinal knowledge and of the natural ecosystems where the medicinal plants occur are at stake, as modernity is progressing on the African countryside (Martin, 1995, Balick and Cox, 1996 and Bussmann, 2006). Through the sustainable use of these plant species, medicinal knowledge and biodiversity conservation could reinforce each other. The current loss of medicinal plants in the country due to natural and anthropogenic factors links with the missing of valuable indigenous knowledge associated with the plants. This strong link suggests a need to conduct ethnobotanical research and to document the medicinal plants and the associated indigenous knowledge. Such studies are useful to identify threatened plants and to take appropriate conservation measures. A first important step in this process of conservation and sustainable management is the identification and inventory of medicinal plants and their uses. The objective of this study is therefore to document the wealth of indigenous knowledge on utilization, management and conservation of medicinal plants; and origin, status and threats to them in Desa’a forest, a juniper-olive dry afromontane forest remnant in northern Ethiopia.

1.1. Study area

Desa’a forest is located about 60 km northeast of Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray regional state of Ethiopia. Currently it is estimated to cover an area of about 41,100 ha (Sebhatleab, 2012). Geographically it is situated between 13° 20′ and 14° 10′ North latitude and between 39° 32′ and 39° 55′ East longitude (Fig. 1), along the western escarpment of the Great Rift Valley facing the Afar depression. It is located in two administrative regions, namely the Tigray Region and the Afar Region (Gebreegziabher, 1999 and Sebhatleab, 2012) experiencing various sorts of pressures due to varied livelihood systems of surrounding communities (Giday, 2013). The altitude of the area ranges from 900 m a s l. at the lower limit to 3000 m a s l. at the plateau; with a mean annual rainfall of 532 mm at the plateau section of the forest (Abegaz, 2005). There are 14 Tabias (the lowest administrative unit in Ethiopia) within and surrounding Desa’a forest, each of them consisting of 3–5 villages, 12 from Tigray and the rest from the Afar region. Seven villages were purposively selected from those Tabias, five from Tigray and two from Afar region based on accessibility to the forest and population size. Total household heads in the studied Tabias ranged from 458 in Mikael Emba to 1042 in Shiket (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.

Study area (A) location of Tigray and Afar Regions within Ethiopia. (B) Location of Desa’a forest within Tigray region. (C) Desa’a forest with border between Tigray and Afar region and study villages.

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2. Methods

2.1. Survey on the use of medicinal plants

Ethnobotanical surveys were carried out from December 2010 to April 2012. Semi-structured interviews (Martin, 1995) were conducted with 272 informants (196 (72%) males and 76 (28%) female household heads). The age of the interviewees ranged from 38 to 72 for males and from 33 to 70 for females, with median age of 52 and 46 for the males and females, respectively. The informants were selected randomly from name lists taken from the Tabia administration of the respective villages and sampling 4–5% of the total population in every village. Prior to visits to households, no appointments were made as there had been an almost daily presence of the researcher in the study villages. Moreover, an additional 26 key informants from all villages comprising of 19 (73%) males and 7 (27%) females, amongst which were elderly people, were selected based on their detailed knowledge and use of medicinal plants.

Respondents were asked to share their experiences of the plants they use to treat human and livestock ailments. The interviews contained detailed discussion with respondents which included naming every plant they used for a particular ailment, plants’ growth forms (either tree, shrub, climber, and herb), degree of scarcity (measured using their own scale of time needed to collect medicinal plants–some they find easily and nearby and others may require lots of searching and travelling within the forest), parts of the plant harvested for medicinal purposes (this could be bark, leaf, whole plant, stem, root, fruit, flower, fluid extract), method of preparation of the remedy, and their administration when prescribed (Survey questionnaire available in on-line supplementary material). Moreover, open-ended and semi-structured interviews with women about their use of smoke baths and participant observation of smoke baths were conducted separately by a female researcher as part of a two years’ (2009–2010) ethnographic study on local natural resource management practices in the study area.

2.2. Plant specimens' collections and identifications

Vernacular names of medicinal plants were recorded with the help of local healers, elderly people, and forest dwellers. Identification of the species was effected right away, as the researchers had a species database with them, but for those they were not sure about (especially herbs), transect walks were organized with the informants to collect their specimens and those were identified using plant identification books (Hedberg and Edwards, 1989, Hedberg and Edwards, 1995, Hedberg et al., 2003, Hedberg et al., 2004, Hedberg et al., 2006, Edwards et al., 1995, Edwards et al., 1997 and Edwards et al., 2000) and for trees and shrubs using the book ‘Useful trees and shrubs for Ethiopia’ (Azene Bekele et al., 1993). Voucher specimens were collected and subsequently deposited in the herbarium of Mekelle University, Ethiopia. All plant names were checked with www.theplantlist.org (accessed on April 07, 2014).

2.3. Data analysis

MS Excel spreadsheets were utilized to summarize the data using descriptive statistics (percentages, averages, proportions for every category of response) and to draw bar and pie charts. The spreadsheet data filter facility was employed to determine frequencies of ailments scores to identify the most common ailments in the study area, popularly used medicinal plant species and multipurpose plant species for their growth forms, source of collection, plant parts used, method of preparation and routes of administration. Frequencies were calculated and cross tabulated to see the effect of demographic characteristics on medicinal plants use.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Plant species of ethnomedicinal importance in the study area

A total of 34 medicinal plant species belonging to 33 genera and 26 families were used to treat human and livestock ailments. Thirty one species were for human and 10 for veterinary use, 24 species were unique for human use only, while 3 species were unique for veterinary use (Acacia etbaica Schweinf., Asparagus africanus Lam., and Kalanchoe marmorata Baker). The families best represented were Solanaceae (3 species); Apocynaceae, Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Oleaceae, and Polygonaceae (2 species each), whereas 19 other families contribute one species each.

Twenty six human and nine veterinary ailments were identified by interviews along with their traditional treatments. With respect to their growth habits, shrubs 21 (48.8%), trees 11 (25.6%) and herbs 7 (16.3%) were commonly used. Contrary to the general pattern seen in other inventories (Schulz et al., 2001, Tessema et al., 2001, Giday et al., 2003, Giday et al., 2007 and Yineger et al., 2007) where herbaceous medicinal plants dominate, in this study shrubs and trees make up 74.4% of the total, which could be as a result of shrubs and trees dominating Desa’a forest and the surrounding area; this is common for medicinal plants originating from forest-based habitats (Ermias et al., 2008). This could also be associated with the abundance and year-round availability of woody species in this semi-arid area.

3.2. Human medicinal plants

In the study 31 species used to treat 26 human ailments were documented (Table 1). These medicinal plants fell into four growth habits, 19 (56%) shrub species, 6 (17.6%) tree species, 5 (14.7%) herbs and 4 (11.8%) climbers. Leaves accounting for 33% followed by root (22%), stem (15.7%) and bark (12%) (Fig. 2a and b) were the most widely used plant parts. Several studies reported leaves to be the dominant plant part used (Dawit and Estifanos, 1991, Tilahun and Giday, 2007 and Tesfaye et al., 2009; Birhane et al., 2011) in the preparation of traditional remedies.

Table 1. Plants used for human medicine in the study area .

Species [voucher number]	Family	Vernacular name	Life form	Parts used	Condition	Preparation and Application	Disease/problem	Rarity score
Acacia sieberiana DC. [Kidane34]	Fabaceae	Che’a	Tree	B	Fresh	Chopped and used to take a smoke bath	Psychosis	2
Achyranthes aspera L. [Kidane04]	Amaranthaceae	Muchele	Herb	R	Fresh	Chopped and used to take a smoke bath	Infection	3
Acokanthera schimperi (A.DC.) Schweif. [Kidane18]	Apocynaceae	Mebtie	Tree	L, B,	Fresh	Boiled and used in a steam bath; chopped and used to take a smoke bath	Scabies, joint pain	2
Boscia salicifolia Oliv. [Kidane07] Cadia purpurea (G.Piccioli) Aiton [Kidane29]	Capparaceae Fabaceae	Awo Selien	Tree Shrub	Fr S	Fresh Fresh	Fruit is eaten Chopped and used to take a smoke bath	Stomach ache Joint pain	2
Calpurnia aurea (Alt.) Benth. [Kidane12]	Fabaceae	Hitsawts	Tree	S	Fresh	Chopped and used to take a smoke bath	Scabies, eye disease	3
Carissa spinarum L. [Kidane24]	Apocynaceae	Egam	Shrub	R, L	Fresh	Smoke bath with the chopped root; leaf is chewed	Back pain, joint pain	3
Cordia africana Lam. [Kidane 39]	Boraginaceae	Awuhi	Tree	L	Fresh	Leaves are crushed and pounded and then taken orally	Stomach ache	2
Cyphostemma adenocaule (Steud. ex A.Rich.) Desc. ex Wild & R.B.Drumm. [Kidane15]	Vitaceae	Mrkus-zibei	Herb	R	Fresh	Local people chew the herb root and spit into the mouth	Tonsillitis	3
Euclea racemosa Murr. [Kidane42]	Ebenaceae	Kliaw	Shrub	R, B, S	Fresh	Plant parts are crushed and pounded and then taken orally; chopped and used to take a smoke bath	Fibroid, joint pain	2
Euphorbia abyssinica J.F. Gmel. [Kidane10]	Euphorbiaceae	Kulkual	Tree	Fe	Fresh	Smeared on affected area	Lymphnode swelling	3
Jasminum abyssinicum Hochst. Ex DC [Kidane32]	Oleaceae	Habitselim	Shrub	Wh, Fr	Fresh	Chopped and used to take a smoke bath; crushed and pounded and then applied to the eyelid	Scabies; Eye disease	3
Juniperus procera Hochst. ex Endl. [Kidane13]	Cupressaceae	Sareda	Tree	L	Fresh	Crushed and pounded leaves are mixed with butter and then applied to hair	Head lice	3
Justicia schimperiana (Hochst. Ex A. Nees) T. Andreson [Kidane21]	Acanthaceae	Shimeja	Shrub	S, L	Fresh	Chopped and used to take a smoke bath; boiled and used as a body wash; leaves and stems are crushed and pounded and then taken orally.	Joint pain; infection Liver disease	2
Laggera tomentosa Sch. Bip. ex Oliv. et Hiern [Kidane46]	Asteraceae	Koskoso	Herb	L	Fresh	The leaves are laid under the bed of a new born baby	Cough	1
Maytenus senegalensis (Lam.) Exell [Kidane33]	Celastraceae	Kabkeb	Tree	L	Fresh	Leaves are chewed or crushed and taken orally	Tooth ache	2
Myrsine africana L. [Kidane05]	Primulaceae	Tsa-tse	Herb	Fr	Fresh	The fruit is eaten or crushed and pounded and taken orally	Tape-worm	3
Nicotiana glauca Graham [Kidane27]	Solanaceae	Chergid	Herb	L, S	Dried	Chopped and used to take a smoke bath	Evil eye; Typhus	2
Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata (Wall. Ex G.Don) Cif. [Kidane03]	Oleaceae	Awlie	Tree	S, L	Fresh	Chopped and used to take a smoke bath; a paste of the leaf is mixed with water and taken orally; the leaf is chewed and then swallowed	Eye disease; joint pain; stomach ache; tooth ache; nausea	3
Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill [Kidane14]	Cactaceae	Kulkal-bahri	Shrub	Fr	Fresh	Fruit is eaten	Heart problem	3
Otostegia integrifolia (Benth.) Scheen & V.A.Albert [Kidane43]	Laminaceae	Chiendog	Shrub	Wh, L	Dried, Fresh	Chopped and fumigate home using local stoves; chopped and used to take a smoke bath; people chew the leaves and spit into mouth	Hen flea; tooth ache; Evil eye; Uvulitis	2
Phytolacca dodecandra L’Herit [Kidane09]	Phytolaccaceae	Shibti	Shrub	R, B, L	Fresh	Plant parts are crushed and pounded, mixed with milk and then taken orally; leaves are crushed and pounded and taken orally and then after 3 h yogurt and red “teff” injera (local thin bread made of tef, Eragrostis tef) is eaten	Abortion, stomach parasite, liver disease	1
Rhamnus prinoides L. [Kidane37]	Rhamnaceae	Gosho	Shrub	B, L	Fresh	Chew and swallow	Uvulitis	1
Ricinus communis L. [Kidane16]	Euphorbiaceae	Gulie	Tree	L	Fresh	A paste of the leaves is mixed with water and then squeezed into the ear	Ear disease	2
Rumex nepalensis Spreng. [Kidane31]	Polygonaceae	Dengele	Shrub	L	Fresh	Fresh leaves are rubbed onto the affected area	Pityriosis versicolor	3
Rumex nervosus Vahl. [Kidane44]	Polygonaceae	Hohot	Shrub	R, L	Fresh	Chopped and used to take a smoke bath; or a wash of the boiled leaf is applied to the swelling with lemon and raw white onion	Joint pain or joint swelling	2
Solanum incanum L. [Kidane08]	Solanaceae	Engule	Shrub	R, B	Fresh	Chew and swallow; burn plant parts on local stove and smell the smoke	Stomach ache, cancer	3
Tarchonanthus camphoratus L. [Kidane23]	Asteraceae	Ebuk	Tree	L, S, B	Dried	Dried parts are chopped and used to fumigate the home	Typhus	3
Verbena officinalis L. [Kidane11]	Verbenaceae	Atush	Herb	R	Fresh	The root is crushed and pounded and taken orally	Stomach ache; Tonsillitis	1
Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal [Kidane06]	Solanaceae	Agol	Shrub	R	Fresh	The root is boiled and used as a steam bath	Cough, infection, joint pain	1
Zehneria scabra Sond. [Kidane38]	Cucurbitaceae	Haregrasha	Herb	L, S	Fresh	Plant parts are boiled and used as a steam bath	Eye disease	1

Abbreviations used: L = leaf; B = bulb; Fr = fruit; R = root; S = stem; Fe = fluid extract (both tapping and destructive); Wh = whole plant; rarity score: 1 = rarely encountered, 2 = occasionally encountered, and 3 = commonly encountered.

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Fig. 2.

Proportions of plant growth forms used in herbal medicines: (a) growth habit and (b) plant parts used.

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The share of roots, stem, and bark, totalling (49.7%) is a point of concern as their harvest is destructive and negatively influences the survival of the plants and hence affects their sustainable utilization (Abebe and Ayehu, 1993 and Ermias et al., 2008, 1993). Acokanthera schimperi (A.DC.) Schweif., Euclea racemosa Murr., Maytenus senegalensis (Lam.) Exell., Phytolacca dodecandra L’Herit, Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata, and Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal were the most frequently used species in such form. Generally, medicinal plant harvest that involves roots, rhizomes, bulbs and barks has a serious effect on the survival of mother plants ( Dawit and Ahadu, 1993).

Of the 26 different human ailments recorded in the study area (Table 2), it was found that joint pain (25.8%) and stomach ache (22.6%) were the major health problems, which were treated by eight and seven species, respectively. Then comes eye disease treated by five species (16.13%) and four other ailments treated by three species (9.68%) each. There was a clear difference between age groups of respondents on the number of medicinal plants used, where it increased with an increasing age (Fig. 3). This has been further discussed with respondents where such differences in demographic characteristic could stem from either the lower age groups having access to alternative medication or the older aged ones are more inclined to use traditional medication and want to secretively preserve the knowledge until it would be the right time to pass it on to the next generation (Jansen, 1981).

Table 2. Number of plants used for treatment of human ailments in the study area.

Ailment English (Tigrigna)	Number of plant species used (per cent of the total number of human ailments treated, in brackets)	Parts used
Back pain (himam hike)	2 (7)	R
Cancer (nekersa)	1 (3)	R, Br
Cough (se’al)	2 (7)	R, L
Diarrhea(witsat)	1 (3)	L
Ear disease (hmam ezni)	1 (3)	L
Evil eye (eide-seb)	3 (10)	L, S
Uvulitis (himam anker)	2 (7)	L
Eye disease (hmam ayni)	5 (16)	S, F, L
Infection (michi)	3 (10)	R, S, L
Joint pain (kirtmat)	8 (26)	L, Br, S, R
Joint swelling (hibet birki)	1 (3)	L
Liver disease (eifshiwa)	2 (7)	L
Lymphnode swelling (akle’a)	1 (3)	Fe
Malaria (a’so)	2 (7)	Fr
Fibroid (himam chinchra)	1 (3)	R, Br
Nausea (e’wilwil)	1 (3)	L
Psychosis (giniyot)	1 (3)	B
Scabies (hafow)	3 (10)	Wh, S, Br, L
Stomach ache (kebdi kurtset)	7 (23)	L, R, Fr, Br
Stomach parasite (habi)	2 (7)	Fr, Br
Syphilis (fintata)	1 (3)	R, S
Tonsillitis (hanat)	2 (7)	L, R
Tooth ache (hmam kurmti)	3 (10)	L, R
Typhus (chelewta)	1 (3)	L, S, Br
Wound (kusli)	1 (3)	Fe

Note: R = root; Br = bark; L = leaf; S = stem; Fr = fruit; F = flower; Fe = fluid extract (both tapping and destructive); Wh = whole plant.

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Fig. 3.

Mean number of medicinal plants used with reference to different demographic characteristics (age cohorts).

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3.3. Administration routes

There were eight administrative routes commonly employed by the local people in the study area (Fig. 4). The majority of the prescriptions were taken orally (42%) and in traditional smoke bath (36%) and six other routes of administration that counted for only a small percentage of each route. The wide use of smoke baths traditionally used by women in the countryside but now also widely introduced in cities, consume stems, bark and roots of preferred species, usually Olea europaea subsp. Cuspidata, Cadia purpurea, Calpurnia aurea, and Euclea racemosa. The practice is contributing to the destruction of the forest. Of the respondents, 72% recognize the potential harm of stems and root harvesting for smoke bath on the existence of the species used (see Box 1for more information on the traditional smoke bath).

Fig. 4.

Routes of administration for herbal medicines in humans.

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Box 1. 

Traditional smoke baths

Women in the research area take smoke baths (locally called “tush”) on a daily basis, except on weekend days and holidays. In general, smoke baths replace bathing with water as water is very scarce in the area, but are only taken by women sometimes accompanied by small children (babies and toddlers). Mainly small branches and bark of olive trees are used, but the branches and barks of other shrub and tree species can be used too, often in combination with those of olive trees. Small babies are put in a smoke bath to prevent them from having mucus. Young girls reaching puberty (around the age of 15) have to take a smoke bath every morning and evening for three up to six months in order to prepare them for marriage. The smoke bath is said to make the girl’s skin lighter and to make her beautiful and strong. In addition to a beauty treatment, women use smoke baths mainly to clean themselves after menstruation and immediately after delivery, also letting the smoke enter the birth canal in order to wash themselves internally. During pregnancy, women increase their use of smoke baths and those who do not sweat during labour take a smoke bath to start sweating.

This traditional practice is also taken up at district hospitals where nurses tell women to take smoke baths to prevent illnesses of the female intimate parts. One informant was told by a doctor to take smoke baths in order to cure her from pain during sexual intercourse and a lack of sexual excitement. Next to preventing or curing female illnesses, smoke baths are said to prevent malaria, to stop shivering if one has malaria, to cure common colds and to kill insects (for example lice, flees, bugs). Elder women use smoke baths against joint pains and as a general treatment against all kind of sicknesses because they believe that the sicknesses can be sweated out.

Plants were used fresh (76.5%), dried (14.7%) or both fresh and dried (8.8%). The remedies were usually taken with water, milk, flour, honey, injera (local thin bread made of tef, Eragrostis tef), sewa (local beer usually made of barley, Hordeum vulgare L.). Moreover, several methods of preparation for harvested medicinal plants from the forest were used by the local communities: eaten raw, crushed and pounded, chopped, fumigated, rubbed, chewed, smeared, hot infusion as well as cut and inhaled ( Table 3). The preparation and application methods varied based on the type of disease and the extent of the ailment. One of the observed constraints associated with the processing of medicinal plants was excessive harvesting and inefficient post-harvest storage and application practices.

Table 3. Method of preparation of medicinal plants for humans by the local people.

Method	Total number of plant species used	% of the total plant species used
Chopping	13	40
Crushing and pounding	13	40
Chewing	12	39
Boiling	4	26
Eating raw	4	26
Dry smoking	9	29
Smearing	1	3
Smelling leaves	1	3

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3.4. Veterinary important traditional medicines

Ten species of medicinal plants had veterinary importance in the study area (Table 4). These were used as a remedy for nine internal and external ailments (Table 5). The numbers of veterinary important plants are comparable with what Tilahun and Giday, 2007 documented for people in Zegie peninsula; but is low compared to other, pastoral areas, for example to those used by Borana pastoralists reported by Teshale et al. (2004). In our study area, the Afar people living around the forest rear only goats and camels and, therefore, may have a lower number of veterinary important medicinal plants as compared to the highlanders. In regard to the growth form of these veterinary medicinal plants, 4 (40%) were trees, followed by shrubs 3 (30%), herbs 2 (20%) and climbers 1 (10%). The plant parts used were leaf (36.4%), root (27.3%), fluid extract (18.3%), stems (9%) and whole plant (9%). Of the nine livestock ailments for which plant medicines were used, eye disease, joint dislocation and wounds were the major health problems. They were treated by two species each, while the remaining six ailments (amoeba, hen flea, leech attachment, skin swelling, stomach ache, and stomach swelling) were treated by one species each (Table 5).

Table 4. Plants used for veterinary medicine in the study area.

Species name [voucher number]	Family	Vernacular name	Life form	Parts used	Condition	Preparation and Application	Disease/problem	Rarity score
Acacia etbaica Schweinf. [Kidane02]	Fabaceae	Seraw	Shrub	R, L	Fresh	Root chopped and crushed then enclosed in a cloth and tied on the ear Chew leaf and then apply to the skin; chew leaf and spit on the eye	Joint dislocation; skin disease Swelling; eye disease	2
Asparagus africanus Lam. [Kidane56]	Asparagaceae	Kastansto	Shrub	R	Fresh	Root chopped and crushed then enclosed in a cloth and tied on the ear or leg	Joint dislocation	3
Euphorbia abyssinica J.F. Gmel. [Kidane10]	Euphorbiaceae	Kulkual	Shrub	Fe	Fresh	Fluid extracted from the stem is smeared on the swelling	Skin swelling	3
Juniperus procera Hochst. ex Endl. [Kidane21]	Cupressaceae	Sareda	Tree	Fe	Fresh	Fluid extracted from the stem is smeared on the affected area	Wound	3
Kalanchoe marmorata Baker [Kidane51]	Crassulaceae	Thsuf	Herb	S	Dried	The stems are tied together with cotton and then put into the wound	Wound	1
Nicotiana glauca Graham [Kidane27]	Solanaceae	Chergid	Herb	L	Fresh	Leaf is crushed and pounded and given orally	Leech attachment	2
Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata (Wall. Ex G.Don) Cif. [Kidane03]	Oleaceae	Awlie	Tree	L	Fresh	A paste of the leaf is mixed with water and squeezed on the eye Let livestock feed on the leaves	Eye disease; amoeba (Entamoeba histolytica)	3
Otostegia integrifolia (Benth.) Scheen & V.A.Albert [Kidane43]	Laminaceae	Chiendog	Shrub	Wh	Dried	Dried plant is chopped and used to fumigate hens-home	Kill hen flea	2
Rumex nepalensis Spreng. [Kidane31]	Polygonaceae	Dengele	Shrub	L	Fresh	Leaves are crushed and pounded and then given orally	Stomach swelling	2
Verbena officinalis L. [Kidane11]	Verbenaceae	Atush	Herb	R	Fresh	Root is crushed and pounded and given orally	Stomach ache	1

Abbreviations; used: L = leaf; R = root; S = stem; Fe = fluid extract (both tapping and destructive); Wh = whole plant; rarity score: 1 = rarely encountered, 2 = occasionally encountered, and 3 = commonly encountered

Table options

Table 5. Number of plants used for the treatment of livestock ailments in the study area.

Ailment/health problem English (Tigrigna)	Number of plant species used (per cent of the total number of livestock ailments treated, in brackets)	Parts used
Amoeba (Entamoeba histolytica) (gondera)	1 (8)	L
Eye disease (himam ayni)	2 (17)	L, R
Hen flea (kunchi derho)	1 (7)	Wh
Joint dislocation (fila’y)	2 (17)	L, R
Leech attachment (alekti)	1 (7)	L
Skin swelling (hibet korbet)	1 (7)	Fe
Stomach ache (kebdi kurtset)	1 (7)	R
Stomach swelling (hibet kebdi)	1 (7)	L, R
Wound (kusli)	2 (17)	Fe, S

Note: R = root; L = leaf; S = stem; Fe = fluid extract (both tapping and destructive); Wh = whole plant.

Table options

The local people in the study area have developed different methods of medicine preparation for veterinary application. The most widely used methods were crushing and pounding (58.33%) followed by fluid extraction (16.67%) and chewing and spitting (people chew and spit to the area to be treated) (16.67% each) and chopping for use as fumigator (8.33%). Most of the plants were used fresh (80%) and 20% was dried. The main routes of administration of the already prepared veterinary medicines were oral (31%) followed by tie (umbilical cord) (23%) and transdermal (23%) This indicates that the medicines were suited to be taken orally and topically as adapted to be effective and a suitable way of taking medicinal prescriptions.

3.5. Considerations for conservation of medicinal plants in Desa’a forest

Desa’a forest clearly serves as an important reservoir for medicinal plants in the study area. But due to overcutting for wood fuel, overgrazing and overexploitation of medicinal plants, the forest is under heavy pressure and will need serious conservation efforts to maintain the provision of medicinal plants in their natural ecosystem. However, very little effort has so far been done to foster the conservation and sustainable management of the forest. This study provides the first step to record and document medicinal plants’ use and the associated knowledge of local communities, in order to relate this knowledge to the conservation status of the species.

Contrary to other inventories in Ethiopia where herbaceous medicinal plants dominate, in this study shrubs and trees make up three fourths of all growth forms used in traditional medicine. Although this is common for medicinal plants originating from forest-based habitats, the wide use of roots, stems, and bark is a point of concern because excessive use could pose a direct threat to survival and regeneration of these preferred medicinal plants.

Of eight administrative routes commonly employed in the study area, traditional smoke bath, accounting for 36% of these, is one source of threat to the different species of shrubs and trees in the forest which are used for this purpose. Moreover, indiscriminate harvesting and inefficient curement practices are some of the observed constraints associated with the processing of medicinal plants in the study area which is also another source of threat.

From the rarity score, informants indicated that 20.6% of the medicinal plants are rarely encountered in the study area to such an extent that people have to invest a lot of time in search of these plants. However, 79% of the respondents noted that the medicinal plants they cited were either commonly or occasionally found; but they were not sure for how long this would remain the case.

Another important observation was that no medicinal plants of any life form were said to be found around homesteads. This could be an indication of the lack of effort in domesticating medicinal plants. This further confirms the overall dependence of local communities on the forest and highlights the need for more sustainable use of the wild resource and/or promotion of domestication interventions.

With the current trend of deforestation if the traditional use of plants by the local communities continues, medicinal plants, dominantly trees and shrubs, will be put under pressure of extinction. Therefore, conserving the forest ecosystem will ensure the existence of these medicinal plants at large. Specifically, integrating those culturally important species in the ongoing rehabilitation programs could also possibly alleviate some of the burdens in the future and hence contribute to the maintenance of species diversity.

4. Conclusion and recommendation

Traditional knowledge, accumulated through generations, allows people living in the surroundings of Desa’a forest to use many species of wild plants from the forest as food, medicine and for other uses from the forest. Contrary to findings of other studies on medicinal plants, in Desa’a forest, trees and shrubs dominate the source. This is, however, common for medicinal plants originating from forest-based habitats. All the medicinal plants studied were collected from the wild indicating the practitioners’ total dependence on the natural environment (the forest). This also indicates the lack of cultivation of medicinal plants in the area, and that the traditional medicinal practitioners should be encouraged to cultivate medicinal plants in their backyards.

Focus should also be given to domestication of some of the wild medicinal plants. This can be done both on household and communal lands where their protection is ensured. Moreover, the local people should be made aware of the possible dangers posed on medicinal plants due to the parts of these plants (roots, stems, and bark) harvested for unique cultural use like smoke bath, over exploitation, indiscriminate harvesting and poor post-harvest treatment practices. It is understood that if the forest ecosystem is conserved, the in-situ conservation of medicinal plants and associated indigenous knowledge could also be ensured. Documenting the declining plants and associated indigenous knowledge can be used as a basis for developing management plans for conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants in the area. Such ethnobotanical studies can contribute to the conservation and development of Desa’a forest through identification and prioritization of threatened medicinal species, domestication at household level, and creation of alternative livelihoods for the local people from commercialization of medicinal plants; which can be used as part of local people empowerment in forest conservation. This will ensure benefits to forest dependent communities and beyond and in the long term enable to create a forest-friendly community contributing to the sustainable management of remaining forests.

Conflict of interest

We all agree to publish the manuscript in this reputable journal.

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