TITLE:
Ethnobotanical Knowledge, Medicinal Uses, and Quantitative Assessment of Medicinal Plants in Conakry and Surrounding Communes, Guinea
AUTHORS:
Arnaud Noudéhouénou Kohonou, Rodrigue Azonwakin Akotegnon, Isabelle Tokoudagba, Fatoumata Bah, Clémentine Michodjehoun, Steven Chokki, Halfane Lehmane
KEYWORDS:
Medicinal Plants, Ethnobotany, Traditional Medicine, Quantitative Indices, Guinea
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.17 No.10,
October
23,
2026
ABSTRACT: Background: In Guinea, as in most of West Africa, plant-based traditional medicine remains a first-line therapeutic resource for a large share of the population, complementing or substituting for conventional health services. Objective: This study aimed to document and quantify the ethnobotanical knowledge, medicinal uses and perceived therapeutic value of medicinal plants among traditional healers, herbalists, farmers and other plant users in Conakry and the surrounding communes and prefectures of Ratoma, Dixinn, Matam, Dubréka, Kindia and Forécariah (Republic of Guinea), with data collection concentrated in the Conakry urban area and its immediate periphery (Section 2.1). Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical ethnobotanical survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire administered through individual and group interviews. A total of 76 use-records were collected from 69 unique informants; sociodemographic percentages reported below are computed at the record level (n = 76) unless otherwise specified, since the source dataset export did not allow an unambiguous one-row-per-informant deduplication (Section 2.2). Data were analysed using a quantitative ethnobotanical index (relative frequency of citation), a correspondence analysis of plant parts by informant status, and fifteen inferential statistical tests (Mann-Whitney U, Pearson’s chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis, one-way ANOVA, Levene’s test, Spearman’s rank correlation), performed in Python (SciPy). Results: The surveyed population comprised 56.6% women, with a mean age of 36.1 ± 13.7 years, and was predominantly composed of traditional healers (43.4%). Moringa oleifera (13 citations; RFC = 18.8%), Azadirachta indica (6 citations; RFC = 8.7%) and Combretum micranthum (5 citations; RFC = 7.2%) were the most frequently cited species, and Moringaceae, Meliaceae and Combretaceae the leading botanical families. Leaves were the most used plant part (90.8% of records) and decoction the dominant preparation method (67.1%). Malaria was the leading condition treated (26.3% of records, combining the “Paludisme” and “Palu” entries). Four of the fifteen statistical tests reached nominal significance (p ρ = 0.532, p Conclusion: This study confirms the richness and vitality of ethnobotanical knowledge in the Conakry area and highlights the need for pharmacological validation of the most cited species and for strengthening intergenerational transmission of this knowledge.