View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector South African Journal of Botany 2003, 69(3): 301–363 Copyright © NISC Pty Ltd Printed in South Africa — All rights reserved SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY ISSN 0254–6299 Bark medicines used in traditional healthcare in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: An inventory OM Grace1, HDV Prendergast2, AK Jäger3 and J van Staden1* 1 Research Centre for Plant Growth and Development, School of Botany and Zoology, University of Natal Pietermaritzburg, Private Bag X01, Scottsville 3209, South Africa 2 Centre for Economic Botany, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AE, United Kingdom 3 Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Royal Danish School of Pharmacy, 2 Universitetsparken, 2100 Copenhagen 0, Denmark * Corresponding author, e-mail:
[email protected] Received 13 June 2002, accepted in revised form 14 March 2003 Bark is an important source of medicine in South Overlapping vernacular names recorded in the literature African traditional healthcare but is poorly documented. indicated that it may be unreliable in local plant identifi- From thorough surveys of the popular ethnobotanical cations. Most (43%) bark medicines were documented literature, and other less widely available sources, 174 for the treatment of internal ailments. Sixteen percent of species (spanning 108 genera and 50 families) used for species were classed in threatened conservation cate- their bark in KwaZulu-Natal, were inventoried. gories, but conservation and management data were Vernacular names, morphological and phytochemical limited or absent from a further 62%. There is a need for properties, usage and conservation data were captured research and specialist publications to address the in a database that aimed to synthesise published infor- gaps in existing knowledge of medicinal bark species mation of such species.