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Review on Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plant and Associated Knowledge used in Ethiopia

Bekele Kindie*, Tahir Abdala

Ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between people, plants and the environment relating and explains how people of a particular culture and religion knowledge make use of medicinal plants. The term ethnobotany was the first time mentioned orally by John Hershberger in 1895. From the ancient times, plants have been crucial sources of preventive and curative to human and livestock ailment. Historical accounts of traditionally used medicinal plants were in use as early as 5000 to 4000 BC in China. Traditional medicines are used to maintain health and to prevent, diagnose and treat physical and mental illnesses differently from allopathic medicine. Indigenous knowledge is the accumulation of technical knowledge, cultural practice, traditional knowledge, rule, standards, skills, and mental set result of many years to treat different human and animal ailments. Traditional medicine is the accumulation of knowledge and practices of community which used medicinal plants to diagnosis health problem of livestock and human. The traditional health practitioners are generally categorized into: Herbalists, Bone setters, traditional birth attendants, spiritual healers, diviners and magicians, Traditional psychiatrists and Herb sellers and spiritual healers. Medicinal plants used in Ethiopia constitute 887 plant species and 26 medicinal plant species are indigenous. There is the most effective medicinal plant species were identified and recorded in Ethiopia which used to treated different human ailments and animal. Around 1000 medicinal plant species are identified in the Ethiopian flora, but, many others medicinal plant species are not yet identified. About 90% of livestock population in Ethiopia relies on treatment of medicinal plants for primary health care. Ethnoveterinary medicine provides traditional medicines, which are locally available and refers to traditional animal health care knowledge and practices to prevent and treat diseases encountered by livestock. The wood lands, montane vegetation including grassland, forests and the evergreen scrubs and rocky areas contain more medicinal plants this indicated that traditional medicinal plant species are not uniformly distributed throughout the country. In-situ conservation is the methods of conserved medicinal plant species and protecting them in their natural habitat by the conservation of their ecosystem and natural habitats. Some of in situ conservation strategies are natural reserves and wild nurseries. Ex-situ conservation is the methods of conserved medicinal plant species and protected endangered medicinal plant species without their natural habitats. Ex-situ conservation strategies are: Gene banks, botanic gardens, seeds banks, field gene banks and tissue culture technique. However traditional medicinal plant resources and their associated indigenous knowledge are declining at an alarming rate, due to ecological shifts; deforestation, urbanization, loss of forests and woodlands, urbanization, over harvesting, agricultural expansion, cultivation of marginal lands and lack of awareness among the community are the critical threats to medicinal plants.