Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants of the Ipassa-Makokou Biosphere Reserve, Gabon: Plants used for treating malaria

Abstract

Malaria remains a major cause of illness and death as well as a contributing factor to poverty in tropical and subtropical regions. Ethnobotanical surveys conducted in the periphery of the Ipassa-Biosphere Reserve (Gabon) allowed to identify 61 plant species used by the Baka pygmies, Fang, Kota and Kwélé ethnic groups for the treatment of malaria. These plants are distributed in 55 genera and 34 botanical families. Leaves are among the plant parts that are largely cited (62% of citations), followed by stem barks (17%) and fruits (13%) while decoction (58%) and maceration (35%) are the most cited pharmaceutical forms. These forms are often administered through the vaporation bath (41%), rectal (25%) and oral (23%) voices. Most of the recipes (73%) cited for treating malaria are made of combination of many plant species. Seven plant species that were largely cited by people living in the periphery of the Ipassa Biosphere Reserve are also known in other African countries for the same usages and are confirmed in the literature for their usage against malaria including Alstonia boonei, Carica papaya, Citrus limon, Cymbopogon citratus, Enantia chlorantha, Picralima nitida, Vernonia amygdalina. The fact that some plant species cited are well recognised for their activity against Plasmodium, is a credibility index which can be attributed to the pharmacopoeia of those people on one hand and illustrates the efficiency of the method used to identify medicinal plants of the Makokou Biosphere Reserve on the other hand. Future studies should be directed towards implementing strategies and programmes to identify active chemical substances of other plant species which have not yet been investigated for their chemical and antimalarial activities in the region.