Biochemistry & Pharmacology: Open Access
Open Access
ISSN: 2167-0501
+44-20-4587-4809
ISSN: 2167-0501
+44-20-4587-4809
Seid Mussa Ahmed and Begashaw Wolde
Accepted Abstracts: Biochem & Pharmacol
Background: Medicinal plants have been used to prevent and treat various health problems. In several African and Asian nations, indigenous medicines are relatively inexpensive and locally available and readily accepted by local population. Ethiopia has an enormous resource of plant species that are used in traditional medicine. Objective: The objective of the study is to identify locally available medicinal plants and local practice of traditional healers on commonly used medicinal plants in Jimma town, South West Ethiopia. Methods: The study was conducted from June 13 to 22, 2011. All the three registered traditional healers at Jimma town were included in the study. Result: All the three registered and licensed traditional medical practitioner were included in the study. Forty three medicinal plant species were identified, which are used to treat 31 human diseases. Most of the medicinal species (83.7%) were collected from the wild. The route of administration on medicinal plants used were oral, topical and inhalation, 19(44.2%), 14(32.6%), 3(7.0%) respectively. The most frequently used plant parts were leaves (56.6%), followed by seed (16.4%), roots (13.2%) and the rest plant parts stem, flower and bark used for treatment of diseases. Conclusion and Recommendation: This study shows that medicinal plants were reported to be widely used as treatment for different types of human diseases and the majority of medicinal plant species were wild. Encouraging local people to grow medicinal plants in the home-gardens is necessary in order to avoid extinction of these medicinally important plant species. Keywords: Traditional medicine, medicinal plants, traditional healer, Jimma, and Ethiopia.
Seid Mussa Ahmed completed B.Pharm degree at the age of 23 years from Addis Ababa University in 2005 and M.Sc. in pharmacoepidemiology and social pharmacy from the same university in 2009. Currently, in addition to his academic duties, he is also head of the Hospital Pharmacy department of Jimma University Specialized Hospital. He has published more than 6 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as a reviewer of many journals. Moreover, he is involved in various ethnopharmacological, epidemiologic, health economics-related, pharmacoepidimologic, social pharmacy, and clinical research activities.