Ethnopharmacological survey of the Bunda district, Tanzania: Plants used to treat infectious diseases
Introduction
Plants have always played a major role in the treatment of human traumas and diseases worldwide (Principe, 1991). They have been used as sources of drugs employed in modern medicine, either by providing pure compounds, starting materials for partial synthesis of useful compounds or models for synthesis of new drugs (Hansel, 1972). Folklore information from many different cultures is an important tool in revealing plants with useful medicinal properties (Balandrin et al., 1993). Since many clinically useful prescription drugs worldwide have originated from the tropical forest, it is worth to embark researching on tropical vegetation (Farnsworth et al., 1985) with an anticipation of obtaining more new bioactive substances. Tanzania is located in this zone with a natural forest containing about 10,000 species which also carry a very high degree of species diversity as well as endemicity in the world, as more than 1100 species are reported to be endemic in this country (Mahunnah and Mshigeni, 1996).
Few ethnomedical surveys that been carried out in Tanzania resulted into compilation of many plants that are used in treating various diseases (Haerdi, 1964, Hedberg and Hedberg, 1982, Hedberg et al., 1983a, Hedberg et al., 1983b, Chhabra et al., 1987, Chhabra et al., 1989, Chhabra et al., 1990a, Chhabra et al., 1990b, Chhabra et al., 1991, Chhabra et al., 1993, Ruffo, 1991). The country covers a geographical area of about 945,000 km2 with a population of over 30 million, consisting of many ethnic groups. The variable physical features and climatic conditions in different regions provide the country with the richest biological diversity in both flora and fauna. Many parts of the country, particularly the remote areas with poor infrastructure have not been reached for the inventory of medicinal plants. These rural communities are almost totally dependent on traditional/herbal medicine for their health care needs. However, useful information about medicinal plants is still passed from one generation to another by oral communication, posing the danger of loosing some knowledge. There is, therefore, a need to carry out more research pertaining to documentation of useful medicinal plants in this country before they disappear, especially those which are already endangered by the arid climatic conditions and man made activities. Aging and natural death of medicine men (Waganga) are other factors having a negative impact on this matter/subject.
The purpose of this survey was to document useful medicinal plants with a clearly defined therapeutic context of being used to treat infectious diseases. Although ailments such as convulsions, hypertension, asthma and infertility were beyond the scope of the present study, it was considered important to record plants that were frequently mentioned for the treatment of such health conditions. In ethnomedical studies, the frequency by which a given plant is mentioned to be of medicinal value is a good indicator of its efficacy
The study was conducted in Bunda district located in the Savannah grassland, Northern part of Tanzania (Fig. 1).
Section snippets
Methodology
The survey was carried out for a period of 28 days in July, 2000, in six villages located in Bunda district. The villages included Bitaraguru, Kung’ombe, Nyasana, Kabasa, Kamukenga and Kangetutya. The interview was conducted using national language, Kiswahili, and sometimes it was necessary to combine with local dialects to enable the informants to give correct information with ease. This was possible, since one of us (SMM) speaks those dialects fluently. There were a total of 10 informants,
Information providers and criterion of plant selection
There were a total of 10 informants, all of them had the primary school education, except two. The informants’ attitude was positive with regard to providing useful information, however, it was necessary to pay some money, as an incentive for the information they provided. Medicinal plants reported in this article are those mentioned by at least five informants, except for Barleria eranthemoides R.Br. that was collected due to emphasis of a traditional healer that it is a useful herb for
Conclusion
Modern health care services provided in Bunda district area are not adequate, since the health care centers/hospitals are few and sometimes distantly located, and most people cannot afford to buy drugs prescribed due their low income. Traditional/herbal medicine keeps working as the most popular complementary/alternative medicine in solving health problems in the area, and people have strong trust in the efficacy of herbs. They believe in what they see, to them what matters is to have the
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences through the Directorate of Postgraduate Studies. We are very grateful to all the people who provided information on medicinal plants in the six villages of Bunda district and Esther Nyakwesi (SMM's mother) for her contribution to this work.
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