Medicinal plants used in ethnoveterinary practices in the Federal Capital Territory, North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

A survey of medicinal plants used in ethnoveterinary practices (EVP) was conducted in Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria to document the indigenous use of this plant in the management of animal diseases. Data were collected from fifty informants which included seven traditional medical practitioners and 43 pastoralists using a structured questionnaire. A total of 31 plant species from 25 families were recorded from the study area. The result showed that 86% of the pastoralist practiced EVP, 64% claimed high proficiency though 75% of the pastoralist age between 20 and 39 years were either low in proficiency in EVP. Also, 58% use EVP regularly while only 14% did not use EVP at all in treating health conditions in their herds. The percentage of plant families used in ethnoveterinary practices in descending order was Fabaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Poaceae, and Solanaceae. Momordica charantia and Carica papaya were mostly cited by the informants with the high relative frequency of citation (RFC), 0.70 and 0.62, respectively. Medicinal plants used in treating diarrhea were having common agreement by most of the informants with informant consensus factor (ICF), 0.90. This study provides plant species used in ethnoveterinary practices in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for further scientific exploration.