Abstract

The loss of medicinal plant species was aggravated by the erosion of the age old accumulated indigenous knowledge on traditional use and management of these plants as its transfer system is widely known to be poor. The present study documented traditional knowledge associated with medicinal plants in Assosa District of Benishangul-Gumuz Region. The objective of the study was to compile and document indigenous plant based medical knowledge of the indigenous community. The study methods was followed random sampling, interviewing selected herbal practitioners and elderly people by means of a semi-structured questionnaire and focus group discussion. Among the 49 plant families, the most frequently used medicinal plant species were reported to be Fabaceae represented by (14.1%), Polygonaceae (7.6%), Sterculiaceae (6.3%), Euphorbiaceae (6.1%), Lamiaceae (5%), Vitaceae (4.6%) and Ranunculaceae (4.2%). In addition, Majority of the respondents (70%) were reported that roots were medicinally used parts. Whereas 17.6 % of them were used both roots and leafs followed by 5% leafs. The remaining 1.5% up to 0.1 % of the respondents were used bark, flower, seeds and whole plants. Moreover, out of the total 119 medicinal plant species collected 97 species (81.5%) of them were used by the local community as remedies for treatment of human ailments while 14 species (11.8%) were used for curing livestock disease and 8 species (6.7%) were used for treatment of both human and livestock diseases. However, the presence of 119 medicinal plant species with diversified families is an indicator of wealth Biodiversity. The trend of medicinal plant threats has been increased in the last five year because of agricultural land expansion, overgrazing, overexploitation and deforestation. Therefore, the scientific community have to try their maximum effort to test the scientific validity of medicinal plants around the study area.