Abstract:
Over centuries, indigenous people have developed their own knowledge on plant use. Traditional
medicine remains to be a locally available, affordable and easily accessible remedies for the
community. This knowledge is the key tool for the survival of the local communities. The main
objective of this study was to investigate, collect and document traditional medicinal plants in
Kola Meketewa district, This research was done from October, 2022 to July 2023.Kola
Meketewa district has a total of 12 kebeles. Out of these, six kebeles were selected purposively
due to the availability of traditional healers and medicinal plant distributions for ethnobotanical
data collection. A total of 180 informants were selected from the six kebeles. Out of the total 180
informants, 30 key informants (traditional healers) were selected purposively based on their
skills and experiences. The other 150 general informants were selected randomly from the local
people of the study area. The Ethnobotanical data were collected using Semi-structured
interviews, focus group discussions, guided field walks and market surveys. Descriptive
statistical methods such as percentage and frequency distribution were employed to analyze and
summarize the data on medicinal plants, associated knowledge, management methods, and
conservation. Data were analyzed using informant consensus factor, fidelity level, preference
ranking, direct matrix ranking and SPSS. The overall medicinal plants identified in the Kola
Meketewa District belong to 88 species, 79 genera and 49 families. Asteraceae were the most
dominant family which consisted 9(10.22%) species followed by Solanaceae 6 (6.8%) species
and Fabaceae and Lamiacea 5 (5.7%) species each. The growth habit of medicinal plants in the
study area were 35(39.8%) herbs, shrubs 28(31.6%), tree 19(21.6%) and climber 6 (6.8%).
Leaves (46.6%) were the greatest widely used plant parts in preparation of medications followed
by roots (24.1%). Leaves (63.6%) were also the dominant plant parts used to prepare remedies
for
the
treatment
of
livestock
ailments
followed
by
bark
27.3%.
Based on the type of the diseases, the remedies were applied through different routes to treat
ailments. Accordingly the most popular mode of administration in the studied district
was oral (53.1%) followed by dermal creaming which covers about 27.1%. According to the
information obtained from informants of the people of Kola Meketewa District, there were 45
different human ailments which can be treated by 77 different medicinal plant species and
15 livestock diseases using 30 different medicinal plant species. The Independent t- test
statistical analysis indicated that variables (sex, literacy level and experiences of informants)
shown significant differences (P <0.05) among different groups of the community, but age did
not show significant differences (p>0.05) on the use of traditional medicinal plants. Emergency
(sudden) diseases scored the highest ICF of 0.83. On the basis of healing cough, Ruta
chalepensis was the most preferred plant species. Cordia africana was the highest multipurpose
and the most threatened species. There was no significant effort witnessed to conserve and
sustainably use and there is high consumption of medicinal plant species of the district.
KeyWords and Phrases: Ailment, informants, indigenous knowledge, healer, medicinal plant.