Medicinal Plants and Their Traditional Uses in Kabylia (Tizi Ouzou, Algeria)
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Arabian Journal of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants Medicinal plants and their traditional uses in Kabylia Medicinal plants and their traditional uses in Kabylia (Tizi Ouzou, Algeria) Rachid Meddour, Ouahiba Meddour-Sahar Department of Agronomical Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences and Agronomical Sciences, University of Mouloud Mammeri, BP 17 RP, 15 000 Tizi Ouzou (Algeria) Received: September 06th, 2015; Accepted: December 10th, 2015 Abstract : This study aims to assess ethnobotanical knowledge in Kabylia, focusing on the use of traditional medicinal plants, at eight rural municipalities in department of Tizi Ouzou. This region has remained relatively isolated and agro-industrial development is not led to a significant decline in traditional practices, including the use of plants in traditional medicine. Ethnobotanical information was gathered using a questionnaire among herbalists, traditional healers and local populations in the study area. At all, 98 vascular plants were identified and recorded, a large majority of them live in wild habitats (forests and wetlands, especially). They belong to 48 families, the most represented are the Lamiaceae (13 species) and Asteraceae (12 species). The most diseases treated are those of four therapeutic groups: digestive (40 plants), skin (29), circulatory (24) and respiratory (21). In contrast, the eye is treated with a single plant. The toxicity of some herbs used with caution is well known (e.g . Nerium oleander L.). Medicinal plants are often multipurpose plants (food, flavor, feed, veterinary, crafts, etc.). Moreover, 31 of these wild plants yet still have an interest in food for rural populations. Finally, a large majority of medicinal plants used in Kabylia, are also known for their therapeutic properties in the Mediterranean basin, e.g. 72 plants (73.5%) of this study are cited by the project Rubia (ICA3-2002-10023). Keywords : ethnobotanical knowledge, healers, Kabylia, medicinal plants, rural population 1. Introduction In recent years many authors in Arab countries, Europe and in the world (Pieroni et al. 2006; Hadjichambis et al. 2008; Gonzalez-Tejero et al. 2008), have shown renewed interest in ethnobotanical knowledge, particularly in traditional medicine and in nutrition. Some studies in the Mediterranean region have shown that many species have proven benefits for human Corresponding author: Dr Rachid Meddour. Email: [email protected] - 137 - Arabian Journal of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants Medicinal plants and their traditional uses in Kabylia health (Pieroni et al. 2006; Hadjichambis et al. 2008; Gonzalez-Tejero et al. 2008). The aim of this ethnobotanical analysis, conducted with local populations, which live in relationship with natural environment, through a territory relatively limited of Kabylia (department of Tizi Ouzou), is to collect information on traditional uses of medicinal plants. This ethnobotanical knowledge is an ancestral know-how transmitted essentially by oral way in the kabylian rural society (Ait Youssef 2006; Meddour et al. 2010; Meddour-Sahar et al. 2010; Derridj et al. 2010), like in all North African countries (Claisse-Dauchy 1996), exposed today to a major risk of decline (Roth and Zaharia 2004). Conscious of health problems of developing countries populations, the World Health Organization exhorted these last ones to include the herbal medicine in their health system (OMS 2003) . It is thus urgent to collect ethnobotanical information and especially ethnomedicinal (Boukef 1986; Bellakhdar 1997) , by raising the inventory of plants used by rural populations and healers, to put acquired data and faithfully transcribed at disposal of the clinical and pharmaceutical research. 2. Materials and method 2.1. Study area This ethnobotanical survey was conducted in the department (or wilaya) of Tizi Ouzou, which is located in North Algeria (36° 43 ′ 00 ″ N, 4° 03 ′ 00 ″ E), a hundred kilometers Algiers east. This study concerns eight rural municipalities: Tizi Rached, Oued Aissi, Tirmitine, Irdjen, in the plain, and Maatkas, Draa el Mizan, Larbaa Nath Irathen, Ain el Hammam, in the foothill (Figure 1 ), and a population of 116 252 inhabitants with a high average density of 374.5 inhab. /km². The climate of the study area is Mediterranean. Winters are cold and wet, with precipitation usually in the form of showers, and summers are dry and hot. The great diversity of its landscape, including mountainous, littoral, and plains, has favored the development of a rich flora which is estimated at 2000 native plants in Kabylia. This region has remained relatively isolated and agro-industrial development has not led to a significant decline in traditional practices, including the use of plants in traditional medicine. 2.2. Data collection Ethnobotanical information was gathered using a questionnaire among herbalists, healers and local populations in the study area. This questionnaire comprises data on the informant and - 138 - Arabian Journal of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants Medicinal plants and their traditional uses in Kabylia therapeutic uses of plants (medicinal or multiple uses, habitat, symptoms and diseases treated, toxicity) (Le Floc’h 1983; Friedberg 1991; Bellakhdar 1997) . To this goal, we realized a qualitative and quantitative inventory of medicinal plants and their current uses, as daily primary care. Several field trips were organized in the study area with populations, from October 2009 to June 2010, to collect specimens of medicinal plants and to know their vernacular names. Then, the botanical systematic and scientific names were identified according to Quézel and Santa (1962, 1963), with an update of the nomenclature according to the index of Dobignard and Chatelain (2010-2013) . A sample of identified species is deposited in the Department of Agronomical Sciences of Faculty of Biological and Agronomical Sciences of Mouloud Mammeri University. Finally, ethnobotanical information obtained was entered in an array of raw and processed data using the Excel spreadsheet (Mehdioui and Kahouadji 2007) . 3. Results The results obtained in this ethnobotanical survey are presented in a summary ( Table 1 ). 3.1. Informants This ethnobotanical survey was conducted with 46 informants. These informants were chosen among the most well-known of the study area for their in-depth knowledge about medicinal plants. Women predominate with 63.8%, versus 36.2% for men. They belong mostly to the age group 36-55 years (41.5%). A significant number of informants (49%) are illiterate or primary level education. 3.2. Botanical analysis We recorded 98 medicinal plants, which were identified on the systematic and taxonomical point of view, belonging to 49 botanical families and 91 genera (Figure 2 ). The most represented families are Lamiaceae (13 species) and Asteraceae (12). The families of Rosaceae (6 species) and Fabaceae (4) are also well represented. The other 45 families are present with 1 to 3 species, among which 31 are cited with only 1 each. Some species are endemic, such as Aristolochia fontanesii Boiss. & Reuter (Algerian endemic), Thymus numidicus Poir. and Origanum vulgare subsp. glandulosum (Desf.) Iestwaart (Algero-Tunisian endemics) and Guenthera amplexicaulis (Desf.) Gómez-Campo (Maghreb-Sicily). - 139 - Arabian Journal of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants Medicinal plants and their traditional uses in Kabylia Figure 1. Location of the study area Figure 2. Number of species recorded by families - 140 - Arabian Journal of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants Medicinal plants and their traditional uses in Kabylia 3.3. Habitats of plants The plants used in traditional medicine in this ethnobotanical study on Kabylia region are spontaneous plants, for a large majority of them (92 %), and sometimes cultivated (8 %). They grows preferentially in wild habitats, forest ecosystems (33 %) and wetlands (29 %), as well as in meadows (19 %) and cultures (13 %). We also notice that ruderal plants (rubble, roads) participate with a number relatively important (16 %) in kabylian traditional pharmacopoeia. 3.4. Treated diseases and symptoms A great number of diseases and symptoms (73) are recorded in this survey. According to the classification of primary care in the Mediterranean region (Gonzalez-Tejero et al . 2008) , the therapeutic group which includes most large number of plants (40) is the one of gastrointestinal group. The skin pathology is in second place with 29 different plants, third place returns to cardiovascular pathology (24 plants) and fourth to respiratory pathology (21 plants). In contrast, eye illnesses (conjunctivitis) are treated only by a single plant (Ocimum basilicum L.). Among the plants used to treat disorders of the digestive system, Marrubium vulgare L. is the species most commonly used in traditional medicine (abdominal pain, indigestion, vomiting) in the study area. Also in this group, many species of Lamiaceae (Ballota nigra L., Mentha pulegium L. , M. spicata L., M. suaveolens Ehrh ., Origanum vulgare subsp. glandulosum (Desf.) Iestwaart , Ajuga iva (L.) Schreber , Lavandula stoechas L. , Teucrium polium L.) show dominant position and are efficient in many gastrointestinal diseases (indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, dysentery, stomach ulcer, hyperacidity, vomiting, bloating, intestinal worms, etc.). The population employs about thirty plants to treat diseases affecting the skin (injuries, burns, eczema, scabies, buttons, frostbite, freckles, warts, hair loss, allergic rashes, etc.). The most used plants are Urtica dioica L. , Dioscorea communis