Ethno botanical study of medicinal plants in adola district, southern Ethiopia

This study was conducted in Adola district to identify and document indigenous knowledge related to the use of medicinal plants and their contributions to household services in the district. The study was carried out between February and April 2019.Ethno botanical data were collected by interviewing 120 informants (92 males and 27 females) aged between 25-95 years. Both purposive and simple random sampling methods were employed to select key informants and general informants, respectively. Ethnobotanical knowledge of plants used for human and livestock ailments were addressed. The data were collected using structured and semi-structured interview through face to face interaction with the informants. The collected data were arranged and analyzed using SPSS software to identify the descriptive detail of demographic information on the knowledge of informants related to medicinal plants. One hundred thirty (130) species belonging to 113 genera and 66 families of medicinal plants were documented. Asteraceae families were the highest 10(15.2%) species followed by Euphorbiaceae and Lamiaceae with7 (10.6%) for each plant species. Of the total number of medicinal plants70 (53.8%) species for human, 53(40.8%) for human and livestock, and 7(5.4%) only for livestock ailments. The most habitat 79(70.5%) of plants were forests and most of their growth forms were tree .Sudden sickness and Diarrhea were the most common diseases recorded for human and livestock, respectively. In the district, Croton macrostachyus was the highest followed by Solanumincanum for treating highest number of ailments. Most of remedies were prepared fromleaves 72(44.2%) by grinding 95(52.8%) in fresh form (95.5%) as well as common route of administration was by oral (57.4%) followed by dermal (20.7%).Agricultural expansion was the most threatening factor of medicinal plants. This study recommands raising awareness of young generation and educated person to avoid negative attitude towards traditional medicinal plants, detail study of phytochemical for common medicinal plants species for development of modern drugs and the cultivattion and management of medicinal plants in home garden and farm land for further sustainable conservation for the future coming generations.