TITLE:
Census Ethnobotanical Study of Some Plants Used in Traditional Medicine in the City of Meknes
AUTHORS:
Fadila Moussaoui, Tajelmolk Alaoui, Saadia Aoudry
KEYWORDS:
Ethnobotanical Survey, Medicinal Plants, Traditional Use, Toxic Plants
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.15,
July
30,
2014
ABSTRACT: An ethnobotanical
survey was conducted in the city of Meknès over a period of two years, from
2009 to 2011 with 1000 people (615 women, 385 men). Through the questionnaire,
schedules were established to collect information on the use of therapeutic
medicinal plants by the local population. This research has focused primarily
on the general population, herbalists and healers. The present investigation
has enumerated 194 species distributed in 165 genera and 72 families. The most
represented families are Lamiaceae (18%), the Aseraceae, (17%), the Apiaceae
(14%) and the Fabaceae (10%). The results of the survey show that 54% of
individuals use both herbal medicine and modern medicine, 26% of individuals
use herbs and 20% use modern medicine. We are interested in the use of plants
in different ages and sexes. We report that 31% of the population is aged
between 51 and 60 years, 29% between 41 and 50 years, 23% between 31 and 40
years, 10% between 21 and 30 years, 3% less than 20 years and 4 % > 60
years. We note the predominance of women over men. Women use up to 61% against
39% of men. The analysis of our results shows that herbal medicine takes a
place in the self-medication of the population studied. However, we emphasize
an important point: Ignorance of toxic plants, in fact, only 19% of the target
population recognizes these plants.