Title : Assessment of plants used traditional in the management of animal diseases in Ekiti-State Senatorial District, Nigeria
Abstract:
Background: The traditional use of plant as medicine for the management of animal health has been from time immemorial to alleviate sicknesses. Animal has been a medium of provision of proteins for the normal growth and development. However, there are lots of diseases that are detritions to the normal health of animals, hence reduced the effectiveness of such an animal. There is therefore a need for ethnobotanical documentation of the medicinal plants as well as associated knowledge and practices.
Method: Ethnobotanical surveys were conducted in Ekiti-South Senatorial district between 2017?and?2018?to document plants used in treating animal diseases in the study area. Semi-structured questionnaire and the guided field work methods were used to interview the respondents who supplied information on plants used in treating the identified animal diseases. Different ethnobotanical indices were used to evaluate the relevance of the documented plants to the management of animal diseased prevailing in the study area.
Results: A total of 63 plant species from 38 families were documented for the management or ruminant and birds animals. The plants were reported using to treat six categories of ailments. The part of the plants mostly used are the leaves (50.7%), bark (40.8%), seed (35.2%) and root (18.3%) respectively. The plants are prepared and applied either singly (38%) or in combination (62%) with other plants and are used in the wet (54%) or dried (46%) forms. Rationale for the choice of the plants were also identified using different ethnobotanical indices. The decoction and infusions are the most frequent methods of preparation. The traditional healers in the study area possess rich ethno-pharmacological knowledge and depend largely on naturally growing plant species. The documented medicinal plants can serve as a basis for further and future phytochemical and pharmacological studies.
Conclusion: The study areas are in full of biodiversity because of the favourable climatic conditions. However, indiscriminate exploitation of the farming land is detrimental to the availability of some of the naturally occurred and indigenous plants, thus extinction of the plants cannot be underestimated. Therefore the documentation of the information will significantly contribute to the evaluation and preservation of the traditional knowledge before it is finally eroded.
Keywords: Semi-structured, livestock, diseases, management, indigenous knowledge.
