Ethnobotanical Study of Obagi Community, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

M. G. Ajuru¹

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.6 , Issue.7 , pp.18-28, Jul-2020

Online published on Jul 31, 2020

Copyright © M. G. Ajuru . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
This paper reports an ethnobotanical study that focused on the documentation of traditional medicinal plants used by Obagi Community in Egi clan, Ogba/Egbema/ Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA) of Rivers State, Nigeria, to treat different human ailments. The study of medicinal plants was carried out from March 30 to August 21, 2019. Data were collected using semistructured questionnaire, interviews, group discussion, guided field walks, and observations with participants. The elderly people in the community and those with good knowledge of medicinal plants were the ones interviewed. This study documented a total of 56 plant species distributed into 52 genera and 37 families as plants used in the study area. The most dominant plant families were Euphorbiaceae (14%), followed by Fabaceae (11%), Asteraceae (11%), Malvaceae (8%), Araceae (8%), Arecaceae (5%), Zingiberaceae (5%), Anacardiaceae (5%), Poaceae (5%) and Musaceae (5%). . The highest plant habit recorded was herbs (48%), followed by trees (29%), shrubs (20%) and woody vines (4%). Leaves (77%), were the most frequently utilized plant parts for preparation of traditional herbal medicines. Decoction was the widely used mode of preparation of traditional remedies where oral administration was the dominant route. The highest diseases cured were malaria and rheumatism. The information generated from this study is encouraging and should be given a thorough investigation and clinical trials. Since this area of study experiences more of gas flaring and over exploitation of land, there should be need for conservation of other non-targeted species for further studies

Key-Words / Index Term :
Ethnobotany, Obagi Community, Rivers State, Medicinal plants, Conservation

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