PRELIMINARY ETHNOBOTANIC STUDY OF PLANTS USED TO TREAT INFANT DIARRHEA BY THE MITSOGHO PEOPLE IN GABON

An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants was carried out among the Mitsogho people of thefour (4) villages located from Oyane 4 to Four-Place (Estuaire-Gabon). The objective of this study was firsttodraw up an inventory of plants used in their traditional medicine against infant diarrhea and then to describe the recipes applied by the local population. Sixteen (16) plants species belonging to sixteen (16) genus and eleven (11) families were identified. The most species cited were Sida rhombifolia (18%), Cyathula prostrata (12%), Desmodium adscendens (12%), andPsidium guineense (12%). Those with the lowest frequencies were among others Picralima nitida (6%) and Santiria trimera (6%). The most represented families are Malvaceae (25%), Apocynaceae (12.5%) and Fabaceae (12.5%). The plants inventoried are mainly woody (81%) trunk bark (56%) and leaves (37%) are the most used plant parts. Twenty-two (22) recipes have been described, of which 77% contain a single plant and 23% are mixture