Ethnobotanical Study of the Traditional Use and Maintenance of Medicinal Plant Species and Indigenous Knowledge by the Konso People, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: For thousands of years, indigenous people have developed their own localized knowledge of plant use, management, and conservation. However, this rich traditional knowledge on plant utilization was not well documented, and most of the indigenous knowledge acquired by the local people was verbally passed from generation to generation. The people of Konso in South Ethiopia use and maintain traditional medicinal plant species, according to their specific ethnobotanical pharmacopeia. Methods: A total of 80 informants aged 25 to 87 years old were chosen (10 individuals of which 5 healers and 5 clients) from the 24 key informants were identified representing 6 from each kebele. The present study explores the unique indigenous knowledge that enables the community to identify medicinal plants, prepare medications, and then apply the cures used to treat a variety of human diseases as dangers to their long-term use. This study was carried out from September 2018 to July 2019. Results: Some medicinal plant species are more popular than others Lepidium sativum, Hagenia abyssinica and Allium sativum were cited by all the 80 informants for their medicinal value. Powdered form was directly used from 40.0% of the medicinal plant species, while 51.4% are chewed, extracted with water, and / or with butter (17.1% each) and 8.6% are extracted with local beer. Of the herbal remedies used in the study area, 68.6% were applied orally and 31.4% were applied externally. Roots are the parts mostly used (35.7%), followed by leaves (32.9%), combination of parts (18.6%), root bark (5.7%), fruit (2.9%), in that order, respectively. It was known that highest source of the medicinal plants was the forest (45.3%). Conclusions: Home gardens and agro forests together contribute 41.86% of the medicinal plants. This study was undertaken to bring awareness towards community-based in-situ and ex-situ conservation actions, attracting younger generations to grab the indigenous knowledge from the parents and ancestors and strengthening home gardens and other agro-forestry systems be used as repositories of medicinal plant species and alternative conservation sites to preserve the traditional medicinal plant species of the study area. Key words: Ethnobotany, Indigenous knowledge, Traditional healers, Medicinal plant species