Harvesting of Plants According Ethnomedicinal Culture of Nso Tribe, Cameroon| Biomed Grid

The firm beliefs of the rural community of the Nso ethnic tribe in the powers and role of plant especially medicinal plants can be used to develop a model for harvesting plants. Their belief systems enable several spiritual cultures like Islam, Christianity, African traditional religion etc. to coexist with each other happily for centuries without major crisis. The belief system differs from science, but all scientific principles are taken care off with different justifications. All plants belong to God and is therefore, necessary to ask God permission to use plants by means of prayers. These prayers are said before harvesting medicinal plants. Traditional rites are performed before falling down trees with economic values like colanuts (Cola acuminate), kirah (Prunus africana) etc. It's interesting that even the highly educated or elites would not build a house where economic trees like cola nuts or medicinal plants needs to be destroyed without consulting traditional medicine practitioners. It's very difficult to find an adult without any basic knowledge of traditional medicines especially in treating simple ailments like wounds, stomach upsets, fever etc.