Zerihun Woldu

An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used by the Zay people in Ethiopia

An ethnobotanical survey was carried out to collect information on the use of medicinal plants by the Zay people who live on islands as well as shore areas of Lake Ziway in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. A total of 33 medicinal plants were reported as being used locally for the treatment and/or control of human and livestock ailments. Results of the survey showed that leaf materials form the major component of plant parts harvested. The majority of the remedies are prepared in the form of juice from freshly collected plant parts. Most of the remedies are prepared from a single species, and are mainly taken orally. Most of the medicinal plants are collected from the wild. Of the total claimed medicinal plants, 10 were reported scarce locally. Environmental degradation and intense deforestation have been reported as the main causes for the depletion of medicinal plants in the area. As the Zay people are still partly dependent on medicinal plants, loss of these plants will, to a certain extent, hamper the existing health care system in the area. Measures for conservation of medicinal plants of the Zay people are urgently needed.

Medicinal plants of the Meinit ethnic group of Ethiopia: an ethnobotanical study.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE The majority of the Ethiopian people, including the Meinit ethnic group, are highly dependent on medicinal plants for their day-to-day public healthcare and veterinary needs. The existence of medicinal plants and the associated knowledge is, however, currently being threatened mainly due to deforestation, environmental degradation and acculturation. Thus, there is an urgent need to document and analyse the knowledge. AIM OF STUDY The aim of this study was to record and analyse local knowledge of the Meinit people of Ethiopia on the use of plants to treat or cure diseases of humans and domestic animals. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ethnobotanical data were gathered through series of individual interviews conducted with selected informants representing different social groups within the Meinit Community. Fidelity Level (FL) values were calculated to estimate the healing potentials of claimed medicinal plants. RESULTS The study revealed 51 medicinal plants, most of which were herbs. Root was the most frequently used part in remedy preparation. The majority of medicinal plants were not cultivated. Significantly higher numbers of medicinal plants were cited by men than women, by older people than younger ones and by illiterate people than literate ones. Rumex nepalensis Spreng., Leucas deflexa Hook.f. and Embelia schimperi Vatke were the medicinal plants that scored the highest FL values. CONCLUSIONS Acculturation of the young generation has been found to be the major treat to the continuation of traditional medical knowledge and practice in the study area. Efforts should, therefore, be made to incorporate traditional medicine in school curricula so that younger people could appreciate its usefulness. Priority for further Pharmaco-chemical investigation should be given to plants that scored highest FL values, as such values could indicate better efficacy.

Ethnomedicinal study of plants used by Sheko ethnic group of Ethiopia

AIM OF THE STUDY This study was conducted to document and evaluate knowledge on medicinal plant use by Sheko ethnic group in Southwest Ethiopia. MATERIALS AND METHODS Interviews and ranking exercises were the main methods employed to collect the ethnobotanical data. Fidelity level (FL) values were calculated for claimed Sheko medicinal plants to estimate their healing potentials. RESULTS Seventy-one Sheko medicinal plants were reported, the majority of which were used to treat skin and gastro-intestinal ailments. Ocimum lamiifolium, Phytolacca dodecandra, Amaranthus dubius and Amaranthus graecizans were the medicinal plants assigned with the highest FL values, a possible indication of their better healing potential. The majority of Sheko medicinal plants were found to be herbs, and leaf was the most preferred plant part in remedy preparations. The study indicated that men, older people and illiterate ones had better knowledge of medicinal plants use as compared to women, younger people and literate ones, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The study showed that the Sheko people have rich knowledge of medicinal plant use. This knowledge is however, currently threatened mainly due to acculturation. Awareness should thus be created among Sheko community by concerned bodies regarding the usefulness of their medical practice. The efficacy and safety of the claimed medicinal plants need to be evaluated before recommending them for a wider use with priority given to those with high fidelity level values.

Medicinal plant knowledge of the Bench ethnic group of Ethiopia: an ethnobotanical investigation

BackgroundPlants have traditionally been used as a source of medicine in Ethiopia since early times for the control of various ailments afflicting humans and their domestic animals. However, little work has been made in the past to properly document and promote the knowledge. Today medicinal plants and the associated knowledge in the country are threatened due to deforestation, environmental degradation and acculturation. Urgent ethnobotanical studies and subsequent conservation measures are, therefore, required to salvage these resources from further loss. The purpose of the present study was to record and analyse traditional medicinal plant knowledge of the Bench ethnic group in Southwest Ethiopia.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with Bench informants selected during transect walks made to houses as well as those identified as knowledgeable by local administrators and elders to gather data regarding local names of medicinal plants used, parts harvested, ailments treated, remedy preparation methods, administration routes, dosage and side effects. The same method was also employed to gather information on marketability, habitat and abundance of the reported medicinal plants. Purposive sampling method was used in the selection of study sites within the study district. Fidelity Level (FL) value was calculated for each claimed medicinal plant to estimate its healing potential.ResultsThe study revealed 35 Bench medicinal plants: 32 used against human ailments and three to treat both human and livestock ailments. The majority of Bench medicinal plants were herbs and leaf was the most frequently used part in the preparation of remedies. Significantly higher average number of medicinal plants was claimed by men, older people and illiterate ones as compared to women, younger people and literate ones, respectively. The majority of the medicinal plants used in the study area were uncultivated ones.ConclusionThe study revealed acculturation as the major threat to the continuation of the traditional medical practice in the study area. Awareness should, therefore, be created among the Bench community, especially the young ones, by concerned organizations and individuals regarding the usefulness of the practice.

Vegetation response to cattle grazing in the Ethiopian highlands

Abstract The effect of grazing cattle on vegetation was studied on a natural pasture during the rainy and dry seasons of 1995 in the Ethiopian highlands. The study used 0.01 ha plots, established on 0–4% and 4–8% slopes located close to each other at Debre Zeit research station, 50 km South of Addis Ababa. The grazing regimes were: light grazing stocked at 0.6 animal-unit-month per hectare (AUM ha−1); moderate grazing stocked at 1.8 AUM ha−1; heavy grazing stocked at 3.0 AUM ha−1; very heavy grazing stocked at 4.2 AUM ha−1; very heavy grazing on ploughed pasture stocked at 4.2 AUM ha−1; and a control of ‘no grazing’. Heavy grazing significantly reduced vegetative cover and biomass yields, especially on steeper slopes. Light to heavy grazing did not affect the botanical composition of the vegetation at both sites, but very heavy grazing resulted in species normally less preferred by animals dominating the botanical composition. Grazing did not have significant effect on ground vegetative cover on the 0–4% slope except at very heavy grazing pressure, but on the 4–8% slope even moderate grazing significantly reduced vegetative cover. Light to moderate grazing at the beginning of the dry period enhanced plant biomass productivity, while any grazing reduced plant productivity during the periods of reduced growth. Species richness increased with increasing grazing pressure compared with no grazing, but decreased sharply at very heavy grazing pressure. We concluded that there is need for developing ‘slope and time specific’ grazing management practices, and to assess short and long term effects of grazing and trampling on vegetation.

Partitioning an elevation gradient of vegetation from southeastern Ethiopia by probabilistic methods

Vegetation and environment have been analyzed along an altitudinal gradient in Harena Forest, Bale Mountains National Park, southeastern Ethiopia. Vegetation data include numbers of each tree and shrub species and cover-abundance values of each herbaceous species. Environmental data comprise edaphic factors, altitude and topography. The two vegetation layers data were analysed separately. Probabilistic similarity coefficients were computed between the relevés, and these values were used in subsequent computations for classification and ordination. Two sets of stratocoena, comprising 6 types each, derived on the basis of separate analyses of tree-shrub and herb layers of the forest were recognised. A combination of the two sets of stratocoena produced a total of 11 vegetation types. Environmental fuzzy set analysis was applied to determine the strength of the relationship of the relevés to the environmental factors. Autocorrelation analysis was applied to the eigenvectors of probabilistic similarity matrices and environmental data. Altitude appears to be more important thant the other environmental factors in controlling the zonation of the forest. Other important environmental influences on the vegetation include pH, organic matter content and texture of the soil. It is suggested that the whole forest be included in the National Park to create suitable conditions for adequate protection.

Processes of environmental degradation and opportunities for rehabilitation in Adwa, Northern Ethiopia

There are only a few studies of land cover-land use changes which provide an integrated assessment of the biophysical and societal causes and consequences of environmental degradation in Ethiopia. Our objectives were to determine the status of the environmental degradation, analyse and evaluate the relationships among vegetation, geomorphological and socio-economic factors contributing to environmental degradation, and propose opportunities for rehabilitation of these natural resources. Field and other environmental data in northern Ethiopia and those acquired by remote sensing techniques were used to accomplish these objectives. These were integrated with socio-economic data obtained from official sources using a Geographic Information System (GIS).Spatial information such as the percent of land cover-land use types and geomorphological categories, and the percent of each land cover-land use type in the geomorphological categories were calculated using Geographic Information System (GIS). The three most dominant features of the geomorphological categories (93.0%) are scarps and denuded rock slopes, erosion surfaces and badlands, while the three most dominant features in the land cover-land use types (71.3%) are croplands, open woodlands and bushlands. Badlands account for 38.7% of the geomorphological units and 41.8% of the croplands currently occur on badlands. Simple and partial correlation analyses were applied to explore the extent of the interaction between the anthropogenic and the natural system. The anthropogenic system is influenced by elevation, which is positively correlated with human population and livestock densities and area of croplands. The natural system finds its place only on steep slopes as shown by the positive correlation between woodland,slope, high potential erosion, scarps and denudational rock slopes. The study indicates that agriculture in the study area is in a critical environmental situation. A change of paradigm in land-use and development is needed to encourage participation of the landowners and users in the efforts to conserve the vegetation and the soil. This study provides sound options that could be used to rehabilitate the vegetation directly and to alleviate the current pressure on the land and improve human welfare indirectly. Matching the human and livestock densities with the carrying capacity of the land through recruitment of the surplus labour force for a modern economy, resettlement,off-farm employment and intensification of agriculture are t he long and short-term actions that may contribute to the rehabilitation of the degraded areas.

Community Niche, an Effective Concept to Measure Diversity of Gradients and Hyperspaces

An appropriate index has been proposed to measure beta-diversity taking into account both richness and equitability. Existing niche overlap indices have been examined and extended to include community niche concept. Niche hypervolumes and percentages of overlap between communities have been determined using data from southeastern Ethiopia.

Grassland communities on the central plateau of Shewa, Ethiopia

A floristic-sociological and production study of the grassland vegetation on the central plateau of Shewa, Ethiopia, is described. Six communities are distinguished and interpreted as expressions of variation in moisture status of the soil, grazing conditions, agronomic activities and altitude. The study indicates that the prevailing poor grassland conditions on the central plateau of Ethiopia with production levels ranging from 73.4–839.7 g/m2 are largely due to high livestock density, and other related problems rather than adverse physical conditions.

The role of herbaria and flora in preserving local plant-use information: the case of the Ethiopian National Herbarium and Flora

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to compile and analyse information on local use of plants in Ethiopia based on data obtained from labels of specimens stored at the National Herbarium and from published volumes of the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Two families were considered: Fabaceae and Euphorbiaceae. Analysis of the herbarium data yielded a total of 116 locally useful plant species in Ethiopia. The highest proportion of plants (52%) was used for medicinal purposes. The study also revealed Acacia nilotica, Croton macrostachyus and Ricinus communis as having the highest use diversity. Further analysis of the Euphorbiaceae herbarium data demonstrated an increasing trend, with time, for collectors to incorporate plant-use information on specimen labels even though much of the records were found too incomplete to be considered useful. The study also revealed that the majority of plant-use information on herbarium labels was absent from the relevant Flora volumes. We, therefore, recommend that more thorough ethnobotanical investigations are conducted in Ethiopia to obtain more complete and precise data on the local use of plants.