Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Documentation on Medicinal Plants Sold in Markets in Abeokuta, Nigeria

MacDonald Idu , Joseph O Erhabor, Harriet M Efijuemue

Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Benin, PMB II54, Benin City, Nigeria;

For correspondence:- MacDonald Idu Email: macdonaldidu@hotmail.com Tel:+2348050607009

Received: 23 December 2009 Accepted: 24 March 2010 Published: 15 April 2010

Citation: Idu M, Erhabor JO, Efijuemue HM. Documentation on Medicinal Plants Sold in Markets in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Trop J Pharm Res 2010; 9(2):110-118 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v9i2.1

© 2010 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To document the medicinal values, local names, method of preparation, dosage forms and parts of common medicinal plants sold in some markets in Abeokuta, Nigeria.

Methods: Ethnobotanical data were collected by oral interview and with the aid of a structured questionnaire administered to men, women and young girls. The data from respondents from the five local markets surveyed were documented.

Results: The results show that a total of 60 medicinal plant species are commonly used by the people of Abeokuta in their traditional health care system. Most of the plant materials were in dried form and sold singly or in combination with other plants and are used in the treatment of various ailments such as malaria, hypertension, typhoid, jaundice, hyperthermia, skin irritations, dysentery, anaemia, gonorrhea, cough, measles and fibroid. A majority of the plants were trees. The respondents were women (64.3 %), young girls (28.5 %) and men (7.14 %).

Conclusion: The findings support the need to encourage domestication and cultivation of medicinal plants as well as put in place conservation measures to ensure sustainable source of medicinal plants.

Keywords: Ethnomedicine; Medicinal plants cultivation; Documentation; Traditional medicine