Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants in Borecha Woreda,Buno Bedele Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia

In Ethiopia the use of medicinal plants as traditional medicine to treat human and livestock disease has been started from the ancient period. An ethnobotanical study was conducted from January to May 2016. Semi-structured interviews, field observations, focus group discussion and various ranking and comparison methods were employed. Data was collected from 91 (85 M and 6 F) informants. These included 15 key informants and 76 randomly selected other informants from households. Collected data entered into MS- Excel and quantitative data were summarized using descriptive statistical methods such as frequency and percentages and the rest qualitative data were narrated. Eighty one plant species representing 75 genera and 42 families were collected. The most plant species were belong to family Fabaceae 9 (11.1 %) followed by Lamiaceae 7 (8.6 %) and Asteraceae 5 (6.2 %). Most of the species 62 (76.5 %) were collected from the wild followed by home gardens 15 (18.5 %). Thirty one (38.3 %) which constituted the highest number were shrubs followed by trees 26 (32.1 %) and herbs 17 (20.9 %). Leaves were the most commonly used part of the medicinal plants 30 (37 %) followed by barks 15 (18.5 %) and roots 12 (14.8 %). Sixty nine (85.2 %) plant species were mentioned for the treatment of 30 human diseases, 4 (5 %) species were used to treat 4 livestock diseases and10 (12.3 %) species for both human and livestock disease treatment. The most common method of preparation of medicine was pounding and mixing 42 (51.9 %) and the common route of administration was oral 52 (64.2 %). Irythrina abyssinica was highly preferred for treating wound and Cordia africana was the top multipurpose medicinal plant species. Agricultural expansion, cutting of trees for different purposes wildfire and settlement were threat to medicinal plants. Awareness creation campaign, traditional medicine knowledge transfer by healers, conserving medicinal plants in their natural habitat and home garden are conservation strategy of medicinal plants for sustainable use.