An Ethnobotanical Study of Traditionally Used Medicinal Plants for Treatment of Human Diseases in Goba District of Bale Zone, Southeast Ethiopia

Abstract

An ethnobotanical study of traditionally used medicinal plants to trat human disease was conducted in Goba District of Bale Zone, Ethiopia. Information was gathered from 60 informants using semi-structured interview. For data collection the site and the informants were selected purposivelly. During the study, a total of 42 medicinal plant speceis belonging to  24 families were recorded. The family Euphorbiaceae has four different species and Apocynaceae, Asteraceae, Cucurbitaceae, Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae and Solanaceae each with 2 species. Each of the rest families had one species. The result of growth forms diversity analysis of medicinal plants reveals that herbs constitute the largest category 38% followed by shrubs 33%. From the total medicinal plant parts used for treattment of disease, the leaves and the roots were the most commonly used plant parts in the preparation of remedies accounting for 33.3% and 21.4% of the total medicinal plants, respectively. The results of preference ranking showed that Zingiber officinale scored the highest mark and ranked first indicating that it was the most effective in treating Tonsillitis disease. The least preferred plant species compared to the other four species were Schinus molle. The study was limitted to three kebeles of Goba district due to many limitations, thus to give more support to the above findings and find more diversities of medicinal plants, further scientific investigations of medicinal plants in the whole parts of the districts are needed.

Keywords: Ethnobotany, Goba District , Human ailments, Medicinal plants