Abstract

This research was carried out to document ethnobotanical data and threats affecting medicinal plants. Semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, face to face discussion, and field visit was employed to gather the required data. A total of 92 informants 21 key and 71 randomly selected informants), of which 48 males and 44 females were used. The study documented 57 plants species which belongs to 55 genera and 41 families. Of these famlies, Asteraceae were represented by 4 species (7.123%), followed by Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae and Rutaceae which is represented by 3 species each. The majority of the species 40 (70%) was gathered from natural habitats while 26% was cultivated and 4%) collected from both. The most widely utilized plants are: Trees 19 (33.3%) species), followed by shrubs 18 (31.6%) species), herbs 16 (28.07%) species), and climbers with 3 (5.3%) species. The society also frequently uses plant parts such as fresh plant materials (68%) and leaves (33%). The most widely used route of medicine application was oral (58%), dermal (23%) and nasal (10.5%). The remaining remedies were taken with some other additives and solvents like water, butter, milk as well as honey. Traditional medicines were prepared by pounding (33.3%), and crushing (24.6%). Carduus schimper and Ocimum forskolei was medicinal plants with higher informant consensus. The disease classes with highest ICF rate (0.93) were fibril illness. The result reveals that there is high preference for Ficus vasta for healing Hemorrhoid disease whereas Cissus cactiformis was used for treatment of Rabies by traditional medicine practitioner. Ekebergia capensis was the highest multipurpose tree species.

Key words: Ethnobotany, Guduru district, traditional practitioner, medicinal plants, ailment.