Keywords

Ethnomedicine, plants, Idoma tribe, Benue state, Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION

Health and disease are measures of the effectiveness with which human groups, combining cultural and biological resources, adapt to their environment [1].Every culture irrespective of its simplicity and complexity has its own beliefs and practices concerning diseases. The culture of a community determines its health culture. Health problems and practices of any community are profoundly influenced by interplay of complex social, economic and political factors. Due to the belief in supernatural elements and religion in matters concerning health, the tribals are almost invariably found to repose faith in traditional medicine men, sorcerers and shamans. However, tribals are not adverse in accepting western medicine whenever available [2].

Ethnobotany and ethno-medical studies are today, recognized as the most viable methods of identifying new medicinal plants or refocusing on those earlier reported for bioactive constituents [3]. Plants have been of immense value to human health and roughly eighty percent of the world's populations rely on them for cure of various ailments [4]. The continual search for natural plant products used as medicines, has acted as a catalyst leading to the widespread use of traditional medicine throughout the world. Traditional medicinal practices today, are an important part of the primary health care delivery system in most of the developing world [5]. There is therefore, the need to understand the concept of traditional medicine if our health care delivery system within our society is to meet our health needs now and in the future [6]. This traditional African healing system has been known by many names like, “folk medicine”, “Native medicine”, Herbal medicine” and “Ethnomedicine”.

Ethnomedical scholars over the years have made several contributions to the development of the traditional medical system in Nigeria. This they have done through ethnobotanical surveys, preliminary investigations of phytochemistry, microscopy and pharmacological trials on medicinal plants. Some of these ethno medical scholars include [7-23].

From investigation, it is apparent that no documented information on the traditional medical system of Idoma people is available. Thus this present study was undertaken to fill the gap in the knowledge of folk medicinal practices among the Idoma people in Nigeria.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study Area

The investigated area is situated on latitude 6.8 and 7.0 degrees North and longitude 8.0 and 8.5 degrees East (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: The map of Benue state showing Idoma land

Method of Collection

Several field trips within six months were conducted in different sections of the Idoma land. At the end of the field trips, at least one village in each zone was covered. Different categories of people were visited and interviewed on the types of medicinal plants used in Idoma district of Benue State, Nigeria. Herbalists, traditional healers and elderly people who had some knowledge of the medicinal values of the plants were interviewed. Specific questions such as plants part used, dosage, preparation of drug and ailment for which the plant is use was asked and the information recorded. These people were followed into the bush for identification and collection of the plant parts. Surely, the Idoma uses more plants, but plants not personally observed and collected were not included in this study. Some such obvious ones are cultivated plants like wheat, maize, radish, beetroot, carrot, watermelon etc.

Species Identification

Most of the plant species were identified through the professional assistance of Professor MacDonald Idu in the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology. Other plant species were identified with the aid of literatures which includes - A Handbook on West African Weeds [24]; Medicinal Plants of West Africa [25]; Trees of Nigeria [26]; Taxonomy of West African Flowering Plants [27] and Ethnomedicinal Uses of Plants in Nigeria [15].

Performance Index of Medicinal Plants

For analyzing the data, “specific flora” is defined as the list of plants used for treating a specific ailment, symptom or physiological effect. The “general flora” is defined as the total list of plants recorded to be used for all types of ailments among a specific group of Idoma people. The relationship between the “specific flora” and the “general flora” can be inferred as follows: if the use of a specific plant for a specific ailment is randomly selected, the proportion of the number of citations to the total number of citations (P1) would be similar to the proportion of specific flora to the general flora (P2). To illustrate the selectivity of a plant for a specific ailment, a comparison is made here between the expected and observed values of the proportion of citation of a plant for a specific disease. The difference (D) between the two proportions is then used to define a performance index (Ip), which ranges from 0 to 3 according to the following arbitrary scale.

• if P1 – P2 < 0, Ip = 0: the plants concerned are rejected, not significant;

• if 0 < P1 – P2 < 1/3, Ip = 1: average performance;

• if 1/3 < P1 – P2< 2/3, Ip = 2: high performance;

• if P1 – P2 >2/3, Ip = 3: very high performance;

RESULTS

Information was obtained for 63 plant specimens. These represent 63 different plant species, distributed in 36 plant families. The following list enumerates the plant with respect to the families and genera within the families. Furthermore, information on folk medicinal plants investigated during the present survey along with their families, botanical names, local names, parts used, usages and biodynamic notes. The botanical names are alphabetically arranged. A total of 50 Idoma households were surveyed. From this survey, a total of 63 plant species were collected. A total of 1801 citations were recorded for 51 ailments and other health problems. Some prescriptions are made from a combination of two or three plant species as shown in table 1 below.

Table 1: Citations of Medicinal Plants in the Households among the Idoma People

Associated plants

Plants which are prescribed together with other plant(s) for the same prescription. For example, to threat malaria, one informant proposed to prepare (boil) together the stem barks of Mangifera indica, Anacardium occidentale, Carica papaya, and Chromolaena odorata and drink the decoction. For treating diarrhea, another person proposed to boil together the stem barks of Mangifera indica with Psidium guajava and drink the decoction.

Table 2 shows the medicinal plants used by the Idomas for the treatment of various ailments, the various plant families and their natural habitats of each of them.

Table 2: Medicinal Plants Recorded among the Idoma and their Habitats

Table 3 shows the ailments each plant discovered in the course of this study is use in treating alongside the number of persons interviewed (homes and traditional practitioners) that mentioned them to be used for the treatment they are said/known to remedy.

Table 3: Ailments Recorded in the Interviews with the Idoma People

Table 4 shows the index of Performance of Medicinal Plants Used by the Idoma People in Benue State, Nigeria

DISCUSSION

The medicinal plants have been used since ancient times for the treatment of human ailments [28]. There is ample evidence that increasing numbers of people across various parts of the world depend on traditional herbal remedies for their health care. The local uses of plants and products in health care are even much higher in particularly those areas with little or no access to modem health services [29].

This present study indicates that for the Idoma people, traditional medicine has wide acceptability and a long history. Indeed, majority of the people use these medications at one time or another and this presupposes the efficacy and safety of plant materials used in ethno medicines. However, of the sixty three (63) plants reported, some of them were used in treating the same ailment or category of ailment like Azadirachta indica, Anacardium occidentale, Anthocleista djalonensis, Carica papaya were used for the treatment of common ailments such as malaria. Others are Ocimum gratissimum, Musa sapientum and Elaeis guineensis which were used in treating stomach disorders; Momordica charantia for diabetes. For wound treatment, Musa sapientum and Dioscorea dumetorum; Telfairia occidentalis and Jatropha tanjorensis were used in boosting the blood (Tables 1,2 and 3). Despite the similar usage, each of the plant had different recipes and is used singly.

Also, some of the plants were used with other plant species, like bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) used with scent leaf (Ocimum bassilicum) against skin problems. It was observed in the study that the collected 63 plant species were used in treating 51 ailments (Table 3). The collected plants are believed to cure different categories of ailments viz. digestive system disorders, skin diseases, gynecological and childbirth problems, respiratory system disorders, heart disease, eye problem, circulatory, urinary and nervous disorders, fevers, ailments of the bone and muscular system, bites, wounds, sores, cuts, convulsion, sore throat and loss of appetite.

The administration of the plant was either internally or externally in the form of juice, decoctions, pastes, infusions or raw as single drugs. Of the various plant parts used the leaves was mostly used followed by stem bark, fruits, root tubers, seeds and roots (Table 4). Two families - Fabaceae and Euphorbiaceae was observed to be the most dominant families with five and four plants respectively while Anacardiaceae, Asteraceae, Cucurbitaceae, Malvaceae, Moraceae and Musaceae had two plants each. This study therefore, on 63 medicinal plants used by Idoma people for the treatment of various ailments can possibly be used as a potential source for making herbal medicines against some diseases and can be treated as a document for preserving the ethno medicinal knowledge for posterity. The ethno pharmacology survey showed that medicinal plants are still widely used by the population in the area where the study was conducted. The recorded plants are grown over an extended area and are used by healers separated by long distances. This may explain the many different types of uses observed. The healers' consensus in the treatment of the main reported diseases is fairly high, giving an additional validity to the plants as a traditional remedy.

This study complements the ongoing activities of evaluation of different uses of medicinal plants and the development of new Improved Traditional Medicine by the Phytomedicine unit of the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology in University of Benin. The performance index analytical studies was carried on these plants in order to ascertain the effectiveness as well as the possible recommendation of the plants followed by designing therapeutic strategies based on the most effective and least reliable plants. Further studies in this direction are needed in future to document the information on other available medicinal plants used by the Idoma people for the treatment of various other diseases prevalent among them. It is hoped that this information will be of use in planning for future research in this direction.

CONCLUSION

The ethno pharmacology survey showed that medicinal plants are still widely used by the population in the study area. It allowed us to report 51 different diseases or ailments treated by the sixty three medicinal plants included in this survey. Several types of preparations of these plants were used. The plants grow over an extended area and are used by healers separated by long distances. This may explain the many different types of uses observed. The healers' consensus in the treatment of the main reported diseases is fairly high, giving an additional validity to the plants as a traditional remedy.

This study complements the ongoing activities of evaluation of different uses of medicinal plants and the development of new Improved Traditional Medicine by the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology in University of Benin. The performance index analytical studies was carried on these plants in order to ascertain the effectiveness as well as the possible recommendation of the plants followed by designing therapeutic strategies based on the most effective and least reliable plants.

Author’s contribution

Idu M conceived of the study, and participated in its design. Himself and EO Joseph spare headed the ethnobotany work. They travelled to Benue state, visited and interviewed the respondents in the course of this study while Ovuakporie- Uvo O helped to sort the information obtained from the survey, draft the manuscript and put the draft in the American Journal of Ethnomedicine publication format. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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