Ethnobotanical Survey of Medicinal Plants used by Tachoni people of Luhyia Community at Maturu village in Lugari sub-county, western Kenya

Abstract

For millennia, the Tachoni people of Lugari sub-county in western Kenya have conserved a rich, collective and accumulative ethnomedicinal knowledge of plants worth documenting and evaluating for successful application in primary healthcare system. It was envisaged that the documentation and evaluation would provide a basis for further research on the efficacy of medicinal plants. Non-alienating, dialogic, participatory action research (PAR) and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) approaches involving 57 women and men aged between 18 and 80 years old from the Tachoni community were utilized.

Results indicated 93 useful medicinal plant species, of which 89 species were identified and spread in 43 families, while their parts for which they are used to mange a wide range of ill-health conditions affecting humans were also documented. Only 4 species could not be traced and located for field collection and scientific identification in the herbarium. Many ethnopractitioners preferred barks, followed by leaves, roots, flowers, fruits and seeds in that order as their sources of ethnomedicines from the forests, woodlots, arable farms, bushes and finally woodlands, in that order.

These field observations confirmed that the Tachoni people have a well-maintained wealthy ethnomedicinal knowledge of plants worth documenting. This, however, provides the basic background against which new and useful ethnopharmacological agents can be discovered following in-depth classical scientific studies, which should explain the safety, quality and efficacy levels of the herbal products being used to manage ill-health conditions of humans in the communities.