Inga Hedberg

Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea

After several years of planning and fund-hunting the Flora of Ethiopia project was launched in 1980, funded by SAREC (Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries) with the aim of producing a Flora of Ethiopia, training of Ethiopian students to Ph.D. in Systematic Botany, and strengthening the National Herbarium in Addis Ababa and its library. Four Ethiopian botanists have now received their Ph.D. in Uppsala and a considerable number of collections has been added in the National Herbarium. Vol. 3 of the Flora was published in 1989 and thanks to the combined efforts of many botanists accounts for most of the remaining families for Flora of Ethiopia are now available in a more or less finalized version.

Inventory of plants used in traditional medicine in Tanzania. I. Plants of the families acanthaceae-cucurbitaceae

Sixty-two plants are listed, which are used by traditional healers in the northeastern part of Tanzania. For each species are given: the botanical name with synonyms, vernacular name, collection number, locality, habitus, approximate distribution, and medical use. Results of a literature survey are also reported, including medical use, isolated constituents and pharmacological effects.

Botanical methods in ethnopharmacology and the need for conservation of medicinal plants.

An imperative demand imposed on all scientific investigations is that they should be repeatable, which calls for adequate documentation from the very beginning. In medicinal plant research, botanical documentation plays a vital role since without correctly identified material and properly documented voucher specimens the results are at best suspect and at worst useless. The botanical contributions required for ethnopharmacological research thus include adequate naming of the material and deposition of properly labelled voucher specimens in at least two public herbaria. Ethnopharmacology depends, however, upon botanical assistance also in another respect, viz. concerning conservation. This field may seem to have little to do with ethnopharmacology, but without joint efforts to save the useful plants from extinction, ethnopharmacology will lose important parts of its main source at an appalling rate.

Tropical-alpine life-forms of vascular plants

The alpine flora of the high East African mountains is renowned for its Giant Senecios, Giant Lobelias, and other weird growth forms. Detailed studies of this afroalpine flora have led to a description of five life-forms of vascular plants, the morphological peculiarities of which are interpreted as ecological adaptations to the tropical-alpine climate with recurrent night frosts throughout the year. The same life-forms occur under similar climatic conditions in other tropical high mountains, notably in the South American Andes. A comparison was made between tropical-alpine life-forms and temperature conditions of Africa and South America. The results support the hypothesis that those life-forms result from parallel adaptive evolution responding to extreme environmental conditions. The crucial factor seems to be the low night temperatures, and most morphological specializations can be interpreted as adaptations favouring temperature insulation and the maintenance of the water balance.

Inventory of plants used in traditional medicine in Tanzania. II. Plants of the families Dilleniaceae--Opiliaceae.

Forty five plants are listed, which are used by traditional healers in the northeastern part of Tanzania. For each species are given: the botanical name with synonyms, vernacular name, collection number, locality, habitus, approximate distribution and medical use. Results of a literature survey are also reported, including medical use, isolated constituents and pharmacological effects.

Inventory of plants used in traditional medicine in Tanzania. part iii. plants of the families papilionaceaevitaceae

Forty-six plants are listed, which are used by traditional healers in the northeastern part of Tanzania. For each species are given: the botanical name with synonyms; vernacular name; collection number; locality; habitus; approximate distribution and medical use. Results of a literature survey are also reported, including medical use, isolated constituents and pharmacological effects.