Abstract

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Plants have traditionally been used as a source of medicine in Ethiopia by indigenous people of different ethnic groups. The Wolaita Zone is one of these where such practice is very common and the associated indigenous knowledge has not been studied and documented well. So this study is aimed at assessing the indigenous knowledge and use of traditional medicinal plants in some weredas of the zone. The knowledge and use of medicinal plant species by traditional healers was investigated in Daamot Pulasa, Damot Woyde, Humbo and Sodo Zuria, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia from May, 2012 to September, 2012. Traditional healers of the study area were selected purposefully with the help of local administrators and local elderly people and interviewed with the help of translators to gather information on the knowledge and use of medicinal plants used as a remedy for human ailments in the study area. In the current study, it was reported that 62 plant species belonging to 62 genera and 36 families were commonly used to treat 30 human ailments. Most of these species were wild and harvested mainly for their leaves (60.5%). The most cited traditional medicinal plant species was of Asteraceae family. No significant correlation was observed between the age, gender and educational status of traditional healers with the number of species reported and the indigenous knowledge transfer was found to be similar.

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