open access

Submitted: 2023-11-16
Natural Resources and Forestry
Published: 2023-12-15

Ethnobotanical survey on threatened medicinal plants in Togo

Laboratory of Botany and Plant Ecology, University of Lomé, Togo
Forests and Societies Research Unit, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
Laboratory of Botany and Plant Ecology, University of Lomé, Togo
Laboratory of Applied Agronomic and Biological Sciences, University of Kara, Togo
Laboratory of Botany and Plant Ecology, University of Lomé, Togo
Laboratory of Botany and Plant Ecology, University of Lomé, Togo

Abstract

Local communities heavily rely on the use of plants for disease treatment, notwithstanding modern medicine's progress. However, climate change and anthropic actions exacerbate threat to these medicinal plant’s survival. This study aims to list Threatened Medicinal Plants (TMP) in the Guinean Zone of Togo and to access community’s traditional knowledge about TMP. For this purpose, 31 localities were investigated and ethnomedicinal data was collected through semi-structured methods, including individual interviews and focus groups. A total, of 124 TMP were recorded, belonging to 118 genera and 47 families. The top five plant taxa were Khaya senegalensis (49.4%), Sarcocephalus latifolius (35.5%), Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides (26.1%), Flueggea virosa (19.3%) and Caesalpinia bonduc (19.0%). The plant parts and mode of preparation most used were respectively leaves (64.8%) and decoction (76.6%). The high Informant Consensus Factor (IFC) (0.79) calculated shows strong agreement on TMP usage according to the disease categories identified. TMP such as K. grandifoliola, K. senegalensis, A. africana, G. afzelii, V. paradoxa, P. erinaceus and M. excelsa are vulnerable worldly according to IUCN criteria. Safeguarding these TMP through their domestication and culture will help to safeguarding TMP and the traditional knowledge about them.

Keywords: threatened medicinal plant, ethnobotany, conservation, Togo