Abstract

An assessment of indigenous knowledge of medicinal plant was carried out to collect and document information on the use of traditional medicinal plants of local people of Hawassa city, southern Ethiopia. Group discussion, semi-structured interviews, field observations or guided field walks with informants to obtain indigenous knowledge of the local community on health, vegetation of the locality, use, conservation and threats of medicinal plants were carried out. A total of 83 medicinal plants and 11 medicinal animals were collected to treat 53 human and livestock ailments. Among the total traditional medicinal plants, 71 species (85.5%) were used against human aliements,3 species (3.6%) were used to treat health problems of livestock and 9 (10.84%) species were used to treat both human and livestock ailments. Fabaceae was the most dominant medicinal plant family reported. Leaves were the dominant plant part used to prepare remedies (31.9%), followed by seeds (19%). High degree of informant consensus factor (ICF) was observed among traditional healers in treating gonorrhea (ICF = 0.77), wound (ICF = 0.76) and stomach ace (0.76). The species with the highest level of fidelity (FL =100%) in treatment of malaria. Traditional remedies were processed mainly through crushing (28.2%), chewing (12.27%), squeezed (12.27%) and powdered (9.2%).

Key words: Indigenous knowledge, local people, medicinal plant, traditional medicine, Hawassa, Ethiopia.