Plants Used in Ethnoveterinary Practices in Chencha and Boreda Districts, Southern Ethiopia.

Abstract

Ethno botanical study on traditional medicinal plants were conducted between March, 2015 and January, 2016 in Chencha and Boreda districts, Southern Ethiopia and documented different types of traditional medicinal plants used by the indigenous peoples. The study was focused on identifying medicinal plants, disease treated, plant parts used, methods of preparation, route of administration, and ingredients added. A purposive sampling technique was carried out using a semi-structured questionnaire, field observation and survey to document indigenous knowledge of 40 traditional healers. The age distribution of healers indicated that the majority were in the range of 51-70 years old (70%, elders) and 30% between 35 and 50 years old (young). All of the informants were males (100%). Twenty-five of them were learned up to grade 1-8 (62.5%), 10 of them were illiterates (25%) the other 5 completed grade 9-10 (12.5%).Descriptive statistics were used to analyze and summarize the ethno-botanical data. Twenty seven ethnoveterinary plant species belonging to 17 families were collected and identified for treating 29 livestock diseases. Most of the plant species reported were possessed by the four major families: Asteraceae (29.42%) used 5 times followed by Lamiaceae (23.53%) used 4 times, Asparagaceae, Fabaceae and Malvaceae each used two times (11.77%). The other 12 plant families used only once and totally constitute 11.74%. According to the findings, the most commonly used plant parts for herbal preparations in the areas were leaves (53.57%) followed by roots (25%), steam (10.7%), bark (7.14%) and seed (3.57%).The informants mostly practice oral drenching (70.7%), topical (17.6%), tying (8.8%) and smoking (2.9%) of plant preparation techniques. This study indicated that traditional medicine is, playing a significant contribution in obtaining the first aid healthcare needs of Chencha and Boreda district communities. Documentation of the practices and medicinal plants is a critical issue and essential to safeguard the knowledge and medicinal plants, and can be used to support the country’s livestock health care system and improve lives and livelihoods of the rural community.

Keywords: Chencha, boreda, medicinal Plants, documentation