Medicinal plants use in central Togo (Africa) with an emphasis on the timing.

BACKGROUND

Plant-based remedies continue to play a key role in the health care of people in Togo; however, there is a lack of published data in medicinal plants and medical practices of the people in the country.

OBJECTIVE

This study was aimed at documenting the plant utilization in the Tem folk medicine in the central region of Togo.

METHODS

An ethnobotanical survey was conducted with traditional healers in the central region of Togo using a semi-structured questionnaire.

RESULTS

This study demonstrated that local specialists in the central region of Togo tend to agree with each other in terms of the plants used to treat diabetes (ICF = 0.38), infertility, and abdominal pains (ICF = 0.33), but cite a much more diverse groups of plants to treat problems related to arterial hypertension, sickle cell disease, and abscess. They use 144 herbal concoctions made of 72 plants, distributed among 36 botanical families. The Euphorbiaceae family with eight species was best represented in terms of the number of species. The species with the highest use value were Khaya senegalensis (Desr.) A. Juss. (Meliaceae) (UV = 0.36), Anthocleista djalonensis A. Chev. (Gentianaceae) (UV = 0.27), Trichilia emetica Vahl (Meliaceae) (UV = 0.25), and Sarcocephalus latifolius (Sm.) E. A. Bruce (Rubiaceae) (UV = 0.21). They also rely on the timing in the plant processing and the administration of herbal remedies.

CONCLUSIONS

All these findings are based on empirical observations; laboratory screenings are needed to check the effectiveness of these plants.