Which Plants for What Ailments: A Quantitative Analysis of Medicinal Ethnobotany of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria

Retracted: Which Plants for What Ailments: A Quantitative Analysis of Medicinal Ethnobotany of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1155/2021/5711547.].

Ethnobotanical Survey of Local Flora Used for Medicinal Purposes among Indigenous People in Five Areas in Lagos State, Nigeria

Traditional medicine is typically the most accessible primary healthcare for a large proportion of the people in Nigeria. However, its potential remains under-explored, especially with regards to their documentation. This research investigated and documented the use of medicinal plants in the management of various health conditions/diseases among local populations in Lagos State. This study was conducted in five (5) locations of Lagos State i.e., Alimosho, Badagry, Eti-Osa, and Epe (including Ijebu and Imota). Ethnobotanical information from 100 participants was obtained using semi-structured questionnaires. Frequency of citation (FC), relative frequency of citation (RFC), fidelity level (FL), and informant consensus factor (ICF) were used to assess the importance of plants utilised for various health conditions/diseases. We identified 183 plants from 61 plant families with the highest number (24) of plants belonging to Fabaceae. Based on the high FC, the top-five popular plants used for managing health conditions/diseases in the study areas were Mangifera indica (95%), Waltheria indica (93%), Zingiber officinale (87%), Alchornea cordifolia (83%) and Ipomoea involucrata (81%). Furthermore, Rauvolfia vomitoria, Urena lobata and Waltheria indica were recognised as the most adaptable plants, as they were used to treat five different health conditions/diseases. The most commonly used life-forms were herbs (34%) and woody species (shrubs; 30%, and trees; 22%). The most regularly used plant parts were leaves. The calculated RFC values for all medicinal plant species ranged from 0.01 to 0.95, while FL values ranged from 7.14 to 100%. We found 14 health conditions/diseases, with ICF values ranging from 0.88 to 0.95. Insomnia, insanity, convulsion, nervousness, and muscle relaxants had the lowest (ICF = 0.88) agreement, while malaria/fevers, stomach, and respiratory-related diseases had the most (ICF = 0.95) agreement. The documented therapeutic uses of the plants provide basic data for further research aimed at pharmacological and conservation studies of the most important flora existing in the study areas.

Wandering through southwestern Nigeria: An inventory of Yoruba useful angiosperm plants

This paper is a compilation of all known uses of angiosperm plants by the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria. Information was gathered from the past experiences of authors and surveys of books, journal articles, dissertations (published and unpublished) and theses using online databases. The review presents 493 angiosperm species (65 monocots and 428 dicots) belonging to 99 families, of which Fabaceae contributed the highest number of useful plants (72 spp.), followed by Euphorbiaceae (31 spp.), Malvaceae (30 spp.), and Asteraceae (25 spp.). Generally, of the identified plants, 418 species are for medicinal purposes, 85 species are utilized as food and beverages, 65 species for other uses including games, food packaging, and arts and crafts while 22 species are used for magical purposes such as success charm, enhancing disappearance, protection from witches and escaping from the repercussion of an act. This study provides baseline ethnobotanical data for future quantitative analyses of useful plants in the region, as indigenous plant knowledge has not been properly explored and documented among the Yoruba people.