Kåre A. Lye

Traditional herbal drugs of Bulamogi, Uganda: plants, use and administration.

We present here an inventory of the medicinal plants of Bulamogi county in Uganda, including their medicinal use, preparation and administration modes. Fieldwork for this study was conducted between June 2000 and June 2001 using semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation as well as transect walks in wild herbal plant collection areas. We recorded 229 plant species belonging to 168 genera in 68 families with medicinal properties. A large proportion of these plants are herbaceous. The medicinal plants are mainly collected from the wild. Some species, such as Sarcocephalus latifolius (Smith) Bruce, are believed by the community to be threatened by unsustainable intensities of use and patterns of harvesting. Particularly vulnerable are said to be the woody or the slow growing species. Herbal medicines are prepared as decoctions, infusions, powders, or as ash, and are administered in a variety of ways. Other concoctions consist of juices and saps. The purported therapeutic claims await validation. Validation in our opinion can help to promote confidence among users of traditional medicine, and also to create opportunities for the marketing of herbal medicines and generate incomes for the community. The processing, packaging and storage of herbal medicines is substandard and require improvement.

Firewood use in Bulamogi County, Uganda: species selection, harvesting and consumption patterns

Abstract This study was carried out in Bulamogi, Uganda, with the main objective of determining preferred firewood species, their harvesting and consumption patterns. Data collected through household and key-informants interviews, using open- and close-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, showed that 48 plant species in 36 genera and 20 families are used as firewood. These plants have other uses as herbal medicines and in traditional cultural rites. There is almost total dependence on firewood for domestic cooking and small-scale industries. Firewood is used to fire bricks (55%), distil spirits (26%), cure fish (10%), cook food in restaurants (6%) and to produce charcoal (3%). Firewood for domestic use is collected mainly by women, and largely comprises of dead wood. The distances travelled to firewood collection areas are short and little time is spent. The harvesting of firewood for domestic use may have a lower direct impact on the native flora, than the harvesting of fuelwood for commercial use by small-scale industries and to make charcoal, which requires large amounts of wood that is often green. According to the community response, firewood is abundant but declining. This decline may be related to increasing demands generated by the growing human population of Bulamogi, and growing national need for charcoal. Cultural taboos that have hitherto played an important role in plant conservation appear to be weakening. There is limited trading of firewood in the community.

Traditional medicine in Bulamogi county, Uganda: its practitioners, users and viability

Traditional medicine (TM) in Bulamogi (Uganda) is holistic, providing treatments for physical illnesses as well as psycho-spiritual ones. People use it to prevent and eliminate the effects of witchcraft, to appease spirits and to cure chronic illnesses. The traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs) are numerous and have extensive experience of traditional healing. They serve as important depositories of traditional knowledge of healing. The health seeking behaviour of the Balamogi is biased towards orthodox medicine (OM), because the people believe it to be more effective than TM. Local people prefer the exact diagnosing methods of orthodox medicine practitioners. The functional values of OM and TM are different in that they serve different health needs in the society. We suggest that they are compatible and complementary as a reliance on both systems is observed. The TMPs, upon additional training, are seen by authorities as a ready source of manpower to provide primary health care services. Some effort has been taken to recognise and integrate TM into the mainstream health care delivery system of Uganda.

The status of wild food plants in Bulamogi County, Uganda

We present here an inventory of the edible plants of Bulamogi, Uganda, and related aspects of exploitation of wild food plants (WFPs) by the local community. The edible plants consist of 105 species distributed in 77 genera and 39 families. Most of the edible plants are herbaceous (70.7%) and are cultivated (49.1%). Some introduced food plants have become naturalised and grow wild. Most of the edible plants yield fruits that are consumed as snacks (41.4%). The major food crops of the Balamogi are consumed locally, while few are traded. The proportion of WFPs is only 32.8% of the edible plants. WFPs are infrequently eaten and their consumption is limited to casual encounters, periods of food shortages and as supplements to major food crops. The main reasons for their neglect are the wide variety of introduced cultivated foods and the increasing difficulty of finding WFPs in the wild. Erosion of traditional knowledge about WFPs has also contributed to their declining use.

Plants used to treat malaria in Nyakayojo sub-county, western Uganda

AIM OF STUDY We performed an ethnobotanical study of plants used to treat malaria in Nyakayojo sub-county in south western Uganda because malaria in this region, and in Uganda at large, is still the single most important reason for ill health and mortality. Two of the most vulnerable groups affected by malaria are young children and pregnant women and plants are commonly used in their treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-eight traditional birth attendants were interviewed about how they used plants to treat malaria. Review of the literature available on all species identified was undertaken. RESULTS Altogether 56 plant species were used by the informants, 48 of which have been identified to species level. Thirty-two (67%) of the species used by the respondents are documented for antimalarial use in other studies, and nearly half (44%) have documented anti-plasmodial activity. Fifty-five percent of the species were used by 2 or more of the respondents. The most commonly used species were Vernonia amygdalina, the indigenous Aloe species, Justicia betonica, Vernonia adoensis and Tithonia diversifolia. It was common to use more than one plant in a recipe (43%). The respondents had good knowledge of the symptom of malaria, and fairly good understanding of the causes. CONCLUSION The interviews show that the group of traditional birth attendants has an extensive and diverse knowledge on plants used in the treatment of malaria. The literature survey may indicate a possible explanation for the use of several plants.

AFLP-based differentiation of tropical African Festuca species compared to the European Festuca complex

For the first time amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprinting is applied to classify tropical African Festuca species. Five afro-alpine narrow- and two afro-montane broad-leaved species from Uganda and Ethiopia are compared to ten European grass species. A principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) accounts for 62.5% with its first three coordinates. The PCoA and the neighbor-joining (NJ) distinguish the five narrow-leaved African Festuca species from all other species. The broad-leaved African Festuca africana and Festuca simensis are linked to the broad-leaved European species through Festuca altissima and Festuca gigantea, respectively. The narrow- and broad-leaved European species are separated as expected in the NJ. One narrow-leaved African alpine species recently described appears merged (i.e. Festuca richardii with Festuca abyssinica). We provide chromosome numbers for all seven Ugandan species and compare taxonomy and AFLP classification. Our most striking result is that the narrow-leaved African Festuca species are unique and not clustering with the narrow-leaved European species.

A New Subspecies of Solanum scabrum Miller Found in Uganda

ABSTRACT Solanum scabrum Miller has been reported almost exclusively from cultivation as a vegetable for human consumption. However, molecular and morphological data indicate that a wild taxon exists in Uganda. This wild taxon was previously identified as the poisonous S. nigrum L., but local people use its leaves as food. This taxon is here described as a new subspecies, S. scabrum Miller subsp. laevis Olet. Morphological descriptions and a key to separate the two subspecies of S. scabrum are given.