Cultural Significance of Medicinal Plants in Healing Human Ailmets Among Guji Semi-Pastoralist People, Suro Barguda District, Ethiopia

Abstract Background: Ethnobotanical studies are useful in documenting, analyzing, and communicating knowledge and interaction between plant diversity and human societies. Indigenous knowledge has developed as a result of human interaction with their environment. Overstocking and farmland expansion has become the main causes of natural resource degradation. Studies on the ethnobotany of the woodland and dry Afromontane vegetation in Suro Barguda District are lacking. So, it was important to study the diversity of medicinal plants and associated indigenous knowledge to determine the level of their usage, depletion, or conservation.Methods: Ethnobotanical data of traditional medicinal plants were collected by interviewing 196 informants (145 males and 51 females). Guided field walks and discussions (both group and individual discussion) were used in collecting the data. Quantitative approaches were used to determine the informant consensus factor, fidelity level, and use-value. Ethnomedicinal knowledge apprehended by different informant categories was compared using t-tests with R- software.Results: A total of 98 medicinal plant species belonging to 87 genera and 48 families were reported to be used for treating human ailments. Family Fabaceae was represented by the highest number of species followed by Lamiaceae. Four of the medicinal plants were endemic to Ethiopia. Shrubs were more dominant than trees and herbs. Most of the remedy preparations were from freshly collected plant parts; the major way of herbal medicine preparation was through chopping or pounding the plant parts and homogenizing them with cold and clean water; the oral application was the most common route of administration.Conclusion: The study area was rich in having medicinal plants and corresponding indigenous knowledge diversity. Most of the medicinal plants were found to play a multipurpose role across different use categories and consequently, some are under serious pressure challenging their survival. Hence, recorded high use value indices of multipurpose plant species in the study area can be used as signals of high use pressure and can be used as keys to design and implement well-coordinated complementary in situ and ex situ conservation activity to save these widely used plant species.