Gadissa Melkamu
Objective: Ethiopia is a country characterized by a wide range of climate and ecological condition which helped to have high diversity of medicinal plants and up to 80% of the population use traditional medicine for primary health care. This study is aimed to assess the current status of indigenous knowledge of traditional plant medicine used among communities of Wonchi District.
Method: A total of 198 informants (27 key and 171 general) were selected purposively based on the availability of key informants and vegetation richness of the district. Semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used and guided field walk with informants was employed to collect the data. Ethno botanical scoring and ranking methods like informant consensus, paired-wise comparison and preference ranking were used to analyze the collected data. The findings were displayed using tables and figures.
Result: A total of 93 medicinal plant species were identified. Out of these 93 species, 53 (53.76%) notably used to treat human ailments, 3 (2.23%) species were used to treat livestock aliments and the rest 40 (43.01%) were used to treat both. Nearly two thirds of the study participants have good knowledge about traditional plant medicine use. Participants who are male, elder, illiterate, traditional healer in occupation and Waqefata in religion were rich in ethno medicinal knowledge than their counterpart. Therefore, all stakeholders should work together in changing the current situation in order to sustainably benefit from traditional plant medicine.
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