Medicinal plants of the Lesser Sunda Islands

Abstract

The ethnobotanical studies of medicinal plants have been carried out including the main ethnic groups in the Lesser Sunda Islands. The recapitulation results from the six main ethnic groups of the Lesser Sunda Islands recorded 279 species of medicinal plants (consisting of 181 wild species and 98 domesticated plants) belonging to 225 genera and 83 families. Some species recorded belong to the threatened categories, such as Santalum album, Strychnos lucida, Alstonia scholaris, and Swietenia macrophylla. Compositae was the largest family comprising 19 species followed by Fabaceae with 18 species. Of the 95 sick complaints or disease types recorded, 17 of which used more than 10 species of medicinal plants. The most common disease to use medicinal plants was fever, which utilized 41 different species. There were many similarities in the uses of medicinal plants, the highest similarity was between Sumbawa and Timor with a similarity index of 0.40 and the lowest was between Sumba and Flores with a similarity index of 0.15. It is suspected that there are still many potential plants that have not been recorded and have not been utilized by the people of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Therefore, intensive data collections need to be continued in order to preserve local knowledge and conserve medicinal plant diversity.