Ethnomedicinal Survey of Medicinal Plants Used in the Western Region of Algeria

Abstract

Since ancient times plants have been indispensable sources of both preventive and curativetraditional medicine preparations for human as well as animals. In Algeria, plant remedies are still the most important and sometimes the only sources of therapeutics for nearly 50% of human and more than 70% in rural population. Therapeutic uses of the same plant species for humans in west of Algeria have also been compared. The identification of plant species traditionally from the local flora could be also potentially useful for the isolation of natural extracts of phyto-therapeutic interest to increase a result of resistance to the antibiotics. An ethno botanical study of medicinal plants was carried out in the west region of Algeria. It was made in order to establish a catalog of medicinal plants and gather all the information about the therapeutic uses practiced by the local population in the study area. Using survey files of ethno-botanical field was introduced at this study. The results have identified 39 medicinal plants used in the west region of Algeria. This work showed that the leaves and seeds are the most used parts and most of the remedies are prepared as is brewing. In terms of the treated diseases, digestive disorders rank first with a rate of (42.5%), followed by skin diseases (17.5%), rheumatism (10.0%) Face care (5.0%). Our results should be the first valuable source of information at ethno-botany and phyto-pharmaceutical products in the west region of Algeria. They could be a database for future research in a phyto-botany and Pharmacognosy studies.