Medicinal plants used by traditional healers from South-west Algeria: an ethnobotanical study

The present study aimed to document and analyze the local knowledge of medicinal plants use by traditional healers in South-west Algeria. The ethnobotanical survey was conducted in two Saharian regions of South-west of Algeria: Adrar and Bechar. In total, twenty-two local traditional healers were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire and open questions. Use value (UV), fidelity level (FL) and Informant Consensus Factor (FIC) were used to analyze the obtained data. Our results showed that 83 medicinal plants species belonging to 38 families are used by traditional healers from South-west of Algeria to treat several ailments. Lamiaceae, Asteraceae, Apiaceae and Fabaceae were the most dominant families with 13, 8, 6 and 4 species respectively. Leaves were the plant parts mostly used (36%), followed by seeds (18%), aerial parts (17%) and roots (12%). Furthermore, decoction was the major mode of preparation (49%) and oral administration was the most preferred (80%). Thymus vulgaris L. (UV=1.045), Zingiber officinale (UV=0.863), Trigonella foenum-graecum L. (UV=0.590), Rosmarinus officinalis L. (UV=0.545) and Ruta chalepensis L. (UV=0.5) were the most frequently species used by local healers. A great informant consensus has been demonstrated for kidney (0.727), cancer (0.687), digestive (0.603) and respiratory diseases. The present study revealed rich ethnomedicinal knowledge in South-west Algeria. The reported species with high use-value, fidelity level and informant consensus factor could be of great interest for further pharmacological studies. [J Complement Med Res 2016; 5(4.000): 320-330