Abderrahmaine Katiri, Mohamed Barkaoui, Fouad Msanda and Hassan Boubaker
In Morocco, diabetes mellitus is a major public health problem with over than 1.5 million cases in 2014. Medicinal plants are widely used by the Moroccan population to treat the illness. This study was carried out to identify the medicinal plants traditionally used in human therapy to treat diabetes in the Tizi n’Test region, and contribute to safeguarding knowledge and local expertise in traditional herbal medicine. A total of 280 interviews were conducted with traditional health practitioners and knowledgeable villagers. Data were collected by semi-structured and structured questionnaires. Indices on Fidelity Level (FL), Use Value (UV) and Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) were calculated. The ethnobotanical survey has identified 39 species representing 24 families. The most encountered medicinal plant families were Asteraceae and Lamiaceae. The following plant species were showed the high significant FL, UV and RFC: Artemisia herba-alba, Cistus creticus, Lavandula maroccana, Salvia lavandulifolia and Olea europaea. Plant leaves were the most commonly used plant part, and decoction was the most common method of traditional drug preparation. Our study showed that medicinal plants continue to play an important role in the primary healthcare system for the local population of the Tizi n’Test region and represents a useful documentation, which can contribute to preserving knowledge on the use of medicinal plants for diabetes treatment and to explore the phytochemical and pharmacological potential of medicinal plant.
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Journal of Pharmacognosy & Natural Products received 606 citations as per Google Scholar report
