There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
An ethnobotanical survey was carried out to collect information on the use of medicinal
plants by the Zay people who live on islands as well as shore areas of Lake Ziway
in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. A total of 33 medicinal plants were reported as being
used locally for the treatment and/or control of human and livestock ailments. Results
of the survey showed that leaf materials form the major component of plant parts harvested.
The majority of the remedies are prepared in the form of juice from freshly collected
plant parts. Most of the remedies are prepared from a single species, and are mainly
taken orally. Most of the medicinal plants are collected from the wild. Of the total
claimed medicinal plants, 10 were reported scarce locally. Environmental degradation
and intense deforestation have been reported as the main causes for the depletion
of medicinal plants in the area. As the Zay people are still partly dependent on medicinal
plants, loss of these plants will, to a certain extent, hamper the existing health
care system in the area. Measures for conservation of medicinal plants of the Zay
people are urgently needed.