Ethnomedicinal study of Plants in Wonchi District, South Western Shewa, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia


 This study documents indigenous medicinal plant utilization, management and the threats affecting them. The study carried out in Wonchi District from December to March 2017. Ethnomedicinal data were collected using semi-structural interview, Field observation, Preference and Direct matrix ranking with traditional healers. The Ethnomedicinal use of 68 plant species belonging to 62 genera and 34 families. was documented in the study area. The most commonly used plant families were Lamiaceae 9 species, 13.23%) followed by Asteraceae (8, 11.76%).Most of the plants (70.6%) were reportedly used to treat human diseases. The most frequently used plant parts were leaves (66%), followed by roots (17.64%).The dominant route of remedy administration was oral (38 preparations, 55.9%) followed by dermal (20, 29.4%), nasal (8, 11.8%) and optical (2, 3%). The study showed that Wonchi District is rich in medicinal plant and related indigenous knowledge. However, anthropogenic factors and very poor conservation efforts threaten medicinal plant survival in the study area. Promotion a complementary in-situ and ex-situ conservation strategy for medicinal plants of the District highly recommended.


Introduction
Ethnobotany is defined as the study of local people's interaction with the natural environment: how they classify, manage and use plants available around them [8]. Over centuries, indigenous people have developed their own locality specific knowledge on plant use, management and conservation [2]. The complex knowledge, beliefs and practices generally known as indigenous knowledge or traditional knowledge develops and changes within time and space, with change of resource and culture Indigenous people around the world have unique knowledge of plant resources on which they depend for food, medicine and other uses [8]. Plants have been vital sources of both preventive and curative traditional medicine for human and livestock [17]. It was estimated that 25000-75000 species of higher plants have been used in traditional medicine worldwide [18]. Ethiopia is also an important regional center for biological diversity [10]. There are about 6500-7000 vascular plants in Ethiopia nearly 10% of which are endemic [21].
Plants have traditionally been used as source of medicine in Ethiopia since long time ago to control various ailments affecting human and livestock. This is evidenced by records of several foreigners who visited the country at the different times [10]. The plant based knowledge, largely oral, has been transferred from one generation to next through herbalists and knowledgeable elders. A study [7] indicated that about 80% of Ethiopians are still dependent on traditional medicine. This to large extent involves the use of plants. Despite the significance role played by medicinal plants in supporting the national primary health care in Ethiopia [4] the major reasons why medicinal plant are demanded in the country are culturally linked traditions, the trust of communities on traditional medicine, efficacy and relatively low cost [19] This rich medicinal plant knowledge is seriously threated due to the age related loss of knowledgeable people, deforestation and environmental degradation taking place in the country. Ethnobotanical studies and subsequent conservation measures are required to prevent medicinal plants and the associated knowledge in Ethiopia from further loss. The purpose of this Ethnobotanical study was to record and analyse medicinal plants knowledge of indigenous people of the Wonchi District South West Shewa, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. The majority 90% of the + local people in the study area belongs to the Oromo ethnic group. The Oromo people constitute at least 40% of the Ethiopian population [13].They speak Afan Oromo language. They have a long tradition of age based social organization called the Gada System by which they manage their social, political and belief systems.

Materials And Methods 2.1 Study area and ethnographic background of the local people
The study was conducted in Wonchi District located in South West Shewa Zone of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia (Fig. 1

Climate Of The Study Area
The rainfall and temperature data collected from Woliso Giyon meteorological station indicated that the study area receives annual rainfall reaching up to 1142 mm in some peak years. The monthly mean maximum and mean minimum temperature of the area are 22.7 0 C and 11.9 0 C respectively.
The mean annual temperature is 16.9 0 C with slight variation from year to year (Fig. 2). The rainfall pattern shows low rainfall in December and February, gradually increasing to the peak period in July and then decreasing in November and December.

Methods of data collection
For ethnobotanical data collection, the following thirteen Kebeles were selected. Haro Wonchi, Hodo The methods used for ethnobotanical data collection were semi structured interviews described by [3] and [8] ; field observation, preference ranking and direct matrix ranking according to [2], [8] and [13].

Medicinal plants in Wonchi District
In this study 68 plant species distributed into 62 genera and 34 families were recorded for their medicinal values. Of these, about (48 species, 70.6%), (14, 20.62%) and (6,8.8%) were reported to treat only human, livestock ailments and both human and livestock ailments respectively. The family Lamiaceae was represented by the highest number of medicinal plants 9 species (13.23%), followed by Asteraceae 8 species (11.76%) ( Table 1).

Endemic Plant Species
Four endemic plant species were recorded from the Ethnomedicinal plant study of the Wonchi District.
The endemic species were found to represent the families Lamiaceae, Verbenaceae, and Urticaceae (Table 2).

Parts Of Medicinal Plants Used
During the study different parts of medicinal plants were reported by respondents to be used for medicines. The most frequently utilized plant part was leaf 45 (66.2%) followed by root that accounts for 12 (18%) as indicated in (Fig. 5).

Method Of Preparation
People of the study area used various methods of preparation of traditional medicines for human and livestock ailments. The method of preparation depends on the types of disease treated. The major methods of preparation of medicinal plants were crushing (44.1%), pounding (36.7%), squeezing (8.9%), boiling (5.9), cooking (2.9%) and burning (1.5%) (Fig. 6).
Indigenous people have knowledge on the preparation of medicinal plants. Some of the traditional medicines had strong taste and bitter in order to reduce these they dilute them with honey, butter coffee, milk and salt.

Route of administration of medicinal plants in the study area
The route of administration includes oral, dermal, nasal and optical. From the reported route of administration, the highest use was through oral (38, 55.9%) and dermal (20,29.4%) (Fig. 7).

Preference ranking
Ocimum lamiifolium scored 44 and ranked first indicating that it is most effective in treating febrile illness followed by Leonotis ocymifolia, Ruta chalepensis,Croton macrostachyus and the least effective was Eucalyptus globulus (Table 3).

Paired Comparisons
A pair wise comparison was made among five medicinal plants. Nine key Respondents did the paired comparison of the five medicinal plants and the value was summarized. Ruta chalepensis cames first for treating stomach-ache followed by Ajuga integrifolia, Solanum incanum, Cymbopogon caesius respectively. Rumex nepalensis was the least preferred species to treat the stomach-ache disease in the study area. (Table 4).

Direct Matrix Ranking
In the study area medicinal plants were used for various purposes such as medicinal, charcoal, construction, firewood, Bee forage, furniture making. To assess the relative importance and to check the major impact on such plants direct matrix ranking was performed. In the area a number of medicinal plants were found to be multipurpose species being utilized for a variety of uses. Five commonly reported multipurpose species and six use-categories were involved in direct matrix ranking with five Respondents. Respondents evaluate their relative importance to the local people and use reports across the selected species were summed up and ranked. Results of the direct matrix ranking showed that Eucalyptus globulus ranked first and hence it is the most preferred plant by local people for various uses. Hagenia abyssinica ranked second, Croton macrostachyus ranked third, Cordia africana took fourth place and Olea europaea subsp cuspidata got the last place (Table 5).

Informant Consensus
Results showed that some medicinal plants were popular than others. In this study the highest informant consensus value was found for Ocimum lamiifolium which was cited by 56 respondents.
Ruta chalepensis was cited by 54 respondents for treating stomach-ache, Acmella caulirhiza was cited by 42 respondents for the treatment of tonsil, and Rumex nepalensis cited by 39 respondents for treating stomach-ache (Table 6).

Informant Consensus Factor For The Given Disease Categories
Diseases in the study area were grouped in to different categories based on the conditions of the disease and treatment resemblance. The medicinal plants that were supposed to be effective in treating a certain disease had higher ICF values, which indicated that these diseases were more common than those with low ICF ( Table 7).
The headache and acute febrile, tooth ache, tonsil, evil eye and cough scored the highest value (0.95) followed by stomachache, internal disease problems; placenta and urine retention and Gonorrhoea that scored the second highest value (0.92). In this study the lowest ICF value (0.87) scored for the category of diseases like wound, tumor, stabbing and swelling (Table 7). Four endemic plants were identified from the study area and these were Lippia adoensis, Pycnostachys abyssinica, Thymus schimperi and Urtica simensis. These species were also reported by [15] ethnobotanical study of Jeldu Woreda.

Major Threats To Medicinal Plants
In this study medicinal plants were reported to have been collected from the wild (32.4%), home gardens (29.4%), crop field (13.2%), surrounding house (7.3%) and wetland (18%). Other reports also Of the total 68 medicinal plants collected from the study area, 54% were herb species followed by 25.4% shrub species, 18% tree species, and 3% climbers. Herbs were the dominant growth form of medicinal plant. This could related to the fact that herbs are easily accessible in the nearby areas than trees and shrubs often harvested from patches of forests distantly located from resident area.
The finding agrees with the general pattern of dominance herbaceous species seen in most medicinal plants inventories in Ethiopia [6,5,25,26,27].
During the study, different parts of medicinal plants were reported by informants to be used for medicine. The most frequently utilized plant part was leaf with 66.2% species followed by root which account for 17.6%. The finding agrees with previous reports in Ethiopia which showed that leaves were the most commonly used parts followed by roots to treat various health problems [14]. Roots were the most reported next to the leaf parts in the preparations of remedies. Such wide harvesting roots, which are important for the survival of plants has a negative influence on the survival and continuity of useful medicinal plants and hence affects sustainable utilization of the plants [4] .
There are various methods of traditional medicinal plants preparation in the area. The most popular mode of preparation was in the form of crushing the plants materials which accounts 44.1% followed by pounding 36.7%, pounding and squeezing (8.9%). This finding was in line with earlier results in which crushing was the common type of preparation [11]. In the study area highest proportion of medicinal plants were prepared from fresh (85%) followed by dry (15%). The report from the local people shows that people in the study area prefer fresh plant materials to dried ones for their high efficacy of curing the disease.
The identified routes of administration include oral, dermal, nasal and optical routes. From the reported routes of administration, the highest report was found for oral (55.9%) and dermal, (29.4%) applications. This result agrees with similar studies in northern part of Ethiopia and Mena Angetu forest in Bale, [4], [12] and [6]. The dosage determination was the big problem in the study because there was no standardized known unit of measurements of the plant remedies. However, the dosage was determined by glass, cup, finger line, Small glass were the identified means to treat human and livestock ailments in the study area.
The preference ranking exercise helped to identify the most preferred medicinal plant species to treat febrile illness. Accordingly Ocimum lamiifolium, Leonotis ocymifolium, Ruta chalepensis and Croton macrostachyus were found to treat the disease. Ethnobotanical investigation done elsewhere in Ethiopia [28] also reported the Ocimum lamiifolium for treating febrile illness. In this study, a number of medicinal plants were found to be multipurpose species being utilized for different purposes. Five respondents' ranked five commonly reported multipurpose species and six use-categories were involved in direct matrix ranking exercise in order to evaluate their relative importance to the local people related to their use values Eucalyptus globulus ranked 1st followed by Hagenia abyssinica, Olea europaea subsp cuspidata, Cordia africana and Croton macrostachyus ranked respectively similar result with research done in Ejere District [28].
The results showed that some medicinal plants were popular than others, in this study the highest informant consensus went to Ocimum lamiifolium which was cited by 56 respondents. The popularity of this medicinal plant was due to the preference of the species for treating febrile illness in the community and its easy access at the home gardens. Ruta chalepensis was cited by 54 respondents for treating stomach-ache, Acmella caulirhiza was cited by 42 respondents for the treatment of tonsil, and Rumex nepalensis cited by 39 respondents for treating stomach-ache. The medicinal plants that were supposed to be effective in treating a certain disease had higher ICF values, which indicated that these diseases were more common than those with lower ICF. Headache and acute febrile illness, toothache, tonsil, evil eye and cough scored the highest value (0.95) followed by stomachache, internal disease problem while the lower ICF value scored was recorded to the category of diseases like wound, tumor and stabbing (0.87). According to [12] medicinal plants that are presumed to be effective in treating a certain disease have higher ICF values. A high ICF value (values cloth to 1) indicates that the respondents rely most on the same taxa to manage specific disease condition, while low values of ICF indicate that the informants disagree on the taxa to be used in the treatment of a given ailment.
As population growth is increasing medicinal plants went threatened due to destruction of their habitats. The result of the present study showed that agricultural expansion, deforestation over grazing ranked as the most serious threats not only to medicinal plants but also to the plants of the Wonchi District as a whole respectively. The finding was in line with other findings too [9]       Habits of medicinal plants used for human and livestock Parts of medicinal plants used Method of Preparation of remedies Appendices.docx