RESEARCH Study of plants traditional E JOURNAL OF ETHNOBIOLOGY AND ETHNOMEDICINE

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground The problem of health in African countries, including Ethiopia, is very acute as people have no full access to government and private health services. The absence or inaccessibility of modern healthcare services and other factors such as high cost of modern drugs and services and better curing of herbal remedies against some chronic diseases has caused a large percentage of the population to rely on traditional medicine, and mostly on herbal remedies [1,2], for its primary health-care needs. In Africa, up to 80 % of the population relys on traditional medicine to help meet its health care needs [3]. Ethiopia is a land of high variation in landscape, flora and fauna, multiplicity of ethnic groups with complex * Correspondence: mirutseg@yahoo.com2Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, AddisKeywords: Medicinal plants, Preference ranking, Seharti SAbstract Background: In Ethiopia, medicinal plants have continued to play vital role in fulfilling human and livestock healthcare needs of different communities. However, these valuable resources are being depleted mainly due to agricultural expansion and deforestation. Therefore, immediate action is required to conserve these resources and document the associated knowledge. The purpose of this study was, thus, to document and analyze information associated with medicinal plants that are used in managing public and animal health problems in Seharti Samr