Abstract

Traditional medicine plays an important role in Ethiopian society; knowledge about the extent and characteristics of traditional healing practices and practitioners is limited and has frequently been ignored in the national health system. The main objective of the study is to document plant species of medicinal value to the community in Hullet Ejju Enesie District and the associated knowledge on use, preparation and other aspects of the indigenous knowledge of the people in Hullet Ejju Enesie District. The study sites were selected purposefully based on the recommendations of elders and local authorities. Ethnobotanical data were collected using semi-structured interviews, field observations, group discussion,preference rankingand market survey. A total of 188 informants (171 males and 17 females) were selected to collect information on medicinal plant use from 6 sampled kebeles. The study resulted a total of 95 medicinal plant species distributed in 85 genera and 44 families. Plant family with the highest medicinal plants in the study area used for various diseases was fabaceae followed by Asteraceae. The result of growth form analysis showed that 37 (38.94%) were herbs constituted the highest proportion of medicinal plants. Leaves from 42 medicinal plants (44.21%) were the most frequently utilized plant parts for preparation of traditional herbal remedy. Among the total traditional medicinal plants, 75 plant species were used against human ailments and 11plant species were used for treatment of cattle diseases and 9 plant species for the treatment of both human and veterinary diseases. The majority of medicinal plants were collected from the wild 71 (74.73%) whereas 24 (25.26%) were from Home-gardens areas. Oral administration 51(53.68%) was the dominant rout of remedy administration. Sudden sickness and evil eye is the highest informant consensus factor (ICF) value among human ailments. Among the reported medicinal plants Kalanchoe petitiana and Shinus molle has the highest FL (100) to treat wound and tonsillitis respectively. Agricultural expansions are the most threatening factors mentioned by participants and hence the local community or traditional healers must protect the medicinal plant resources from threat by doing different activities and transfer to the next generation for sustainable use.