THE JOURNAL OF TROPICAL LIFE SCIENCE OPEN ACCESS Freely available online VOL. 3, NO. 2, pp. 96 – 103, May, 2013 Ethnobotanical Investigation to Conserve Home Gardens’s Species of Plants in Tambakrejo, Sumbermanjing Wetan, Southern of Malang Ratih Nila Pamungkas*, Luchman Hakim Biology Departement, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia ABSTRACT In developing countries, traditional knowledge of indigenous people is being widely threatened by current trends of economic globalization especially in tourism destination area such as in Tambakrejo village, Sumbermanjing Wetan, Malang. This region covers Sempu Island as well as the proposed pro- tected area. The aims of the investigation are to find outthe diversity of species of plants that made up- home garden species, to measure the use value of each species of plants using ethnobotany indexes, and to describe methods of preparation and uses of the important plants. The study represents the first step to documenting significant utilization of the species of plantsin home gardens based on indige- nous knowledge before it disappears. Data was collected through depth and semi structured inter- views. Informationgathered was about traditional uses of wild plants as well as cultivated plants. All the collected data was filled into an analytical table and,for the ease of analyses, was grouped into ten categories continued with detailed information on uses. Data was calculated using synthetic indexes, namely Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) and Cultural Importance Index (CI). One hundred and one plants were cited by informants as being traditionally used in the area. These 99 ethnospecies be- long to 45 families. From the 10 categories, most of them are used for allimnetary, medical, and eco- nomical plants. For allimentary plants, 316 citations, 58 species, and 5 different uses were recorded. For medical plants, there were 63 citations, 22 species, and 4 different uses of categories. A few species of plantsbelong to others categories, like erotion control. The study shows that traditional uses of plants especially at home gardens still survives as part of cultural heritage of the community, for some economical reasons, and also for daily activities. Keywords: ethnobotanical, home garden, traditional knowledge INTRODUCTION types of germplasm maintained by farmers are a prerequisite for investigating ways to improve The investigation on ethnobotanical study the germplasm maintenance of food crop [3]. based on indigenous knowledge has brought Ethnobotanical research addresses the charac- much contribution for ecologists, pharmacolo- teristics of traditional knowledge to establish gists, taxonomists, and also environmental mana- priorities together with the local community as gers to protect their field of work, especially the to ensure that local values are translated into ones related with high quality biodiversity areas. rational uses of resources and effective conser- For example, in the field of pharmacology, plant- vation of biological diversity and cultural know- based traditional knowledge has become a recog- ledge [4]. Plants as bioresource are responsible nized tool in search of new sources of drugs and for the socioeconomic uplift of the area and the neutraceuticals [1, 2]; the knowledge is also im- people. The people of the area are mainly poor, portant for maintaining germplasm in a con- depend mainly on agriculture, government servi- served area. Knowledge on the utilization and ces, and forest resources. Therefore, the forest is traditional food processing techniques as well as under severe biotic pressure. Forest reservationis a constant source for maintaining genetic diver- *Corresponding address: sity of plants and animals; and these resources Ratih Nila Pamungkas should be available to human through proper Biology Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural conservation. In developing countries, traditional Sciences, Brawijaya University, Jalan Veteran, Malang, knowledge of indigenous people is being widely Indonesia 65145 threatened by current trends of economic globa- E-mail: [email protected] JTLS | J. Trop. Life. Science 96 Volume 3 | Number 2 | May | 2013 Ethnobotanical Investigation to Conserve lization that promote intensive agriculture, in- home gardens and 511 ha used as settlement. dustrialization, and the migration of rural popu- Most of Tambakrejo villagers are Javanese and lation to urban areas [5]. Those cases also appear just some of them are Maduranese. There are in Sumbermanjing Wetan, Malang, especially in some traditional rituals that usually take place tourism destination area such as Tambakrejo there, such as larung sesaji and petik laut tradition, village. This region includes Sempu Island as well traditional wedding ceremony, pregnance cere- as the proposed protected area. Most of the yo- mony, baby delivery ceremony, death ceremony, ung females are more interestedin being a TKW and also bersih desa. Beside those rituals, the (female workers) in other countries than in deve- culture of bertegur sapa and rembug desa are still loping their own region. Thus, it is worry some done by the people of Tambakrejo village [6]. that tradisional cultural heritage and a lot of local uses of plants are not mantained as well as be- Sampling procedure fore. The aims of the investigation were to find The investigation was caried out from Sep- out the diversity of species of plants that made tember 2012 to Januari 2013. Information was up home gardens species, to measure the use collected on traditional uses of species of plants value of each species of plants using ethnobo- in each of home gardens, both wild plants and tany indexes, and also to describe methods of cultivated plants. Only 23 informants from 23 preparation and use of the significant plants. The home gardens areas were selected and involved study represents the first step to documenting in the study. The requirement of the informants significant utilization of the species of plants in were people who were born and had always lived home gardens based on indigenous knowledge in the area. In addition, we also made sure that before it disappears. the source of their knowledge about local uses of plants had come only from their traditional cul- MATERIALS AND METHODS ture. Local society refers to people who live and Description of the study area stay in a region for a long periode, who can Tambakrejo village is located south to Malang maintain their community that is different from region. It covers 2735.830 ha of land, consisting other communities, especially the modern people of Tamban district and Sendang Biru area. This [7]. Similar questions were given to each infor- region includes Sempu Island as well as the pro- mant as to get compilation of indigenous know- posed protected area (Figure 1). The population ledge. Information was collected through deep of the area is around 6,890 people. In average, interviews in their local language (Javanese la- there are 255 families live in Tamban district and nguage) and Indonesian. Specimens of the cited the others live in Sendang Biru. Until 2011, the species of plants were prepared as herbarium and livelihood of people in Tambakrejo are in agri- deposited in LIPI Botanical Garden, Purwodadi, culture, fishery, cattle breeding, tailor, carpenter, Pasuruan, for identification. Systematic arrange- and seller. The landscape includes forest, hills, ment and nomenclature were made based on and beaches, with altitude of 0-100 m, and ave- Flora of Java and Botanical Garden Catalogue. rage temperature of 26 °C-30 °C. Based on the Deep interviews were done to get short descrip- data from a survey in 2010 by Malang govern- tion on how the local people used those plants. ment, Tambakrejo village has 123 ha area used as Figure 1. Map accessibility south of Malang region JTLS | J. Trop. Life. Science 97 Volume 3 | Number 2 | May | 2013 Pamungkas RN, Hakim L, 2013 Data analysis These are much more detailed and numerous than Data was collected and arranged in analysis the use categories table employing Microsoft Excel 2007. Data was classified into ten general categories, those were: RESULT AND DISCUSSION alliment, medicine, animal food, firewood, cons- truction, cultural ceremony/ritual, craft and tech- The total number of informants was 23 peo- nology, economy, ornament, and others. The ca- ple, each of whom had their own home garden. tegory of alliment included human food and Most of the informants (82%) were female. The beverage, as well as cooking spices. Plants be- most of plant resources, especially alimentary longing to ritual category were the ones used in and medicinal plants, are managed by women religious events, larung sesaji ceremony, wedding [11]. The informants were mostly elderly people ceremony, etc. Craft category included plants and had worked in the region for many years. used for making handycraft, rope and others ob- Most of the informants (43 %) were at the age of jects. Finally, the last category, others, included 41 until 50 years old. The reason to choose peo- species for nginang, hedges, and aromateraphy. ple above 30 years of age was based on conside- Quantitative analysis of the data was done to ration that people above 30 had larger know- know the diversity of species of plants in all ledge, had more experience, and were also wiser home gardens, to verify the potential of local in tought. From those 23 informants, 52 % gra- knowledge of Tambakrejo villagers, and also to duated from elementary school, 17 % graduated find out utility aspects based on the ten catego- from junior high school or senior high school, ries above. Therefore, from the citations, the and the rest 13 % were bachelors. The infor- number of species, the number of informant mants’ work included housewives, farmers, baby who gave some information, and the utility as- healers, retired people and others. pects were known. The ethnobotanical indices are found on the basic structure of the ethno- Table 1. Basic information of informant in Tambakrejo village botanical information; those are informants men- N % tioning the categories of uses [8].