Plants of Veterinary Importance in Southwestern Ethiopia: The Case of Gilgel Ghibe Area

ABSTRACT An ethnobotanical study was conducted on ethnoveterinary medicinal plants used by people living in southwestern Ethiopia. Semi-structured interviews and observations were employed to collect data on medicinal and other uses of plants. Traditional medicine practitioners of the study area reported the use of twenty nine medicinal plant species of veterinary importance to treat 16 livestock ailments. The majority of these species were collected from the wild and used fresh for ethnoveterinary remedies. Most of the medicinal species were sought for their leaves (59%), followed by roots (16%) and twigs (12%). Deforestation and recurrent drought were the most cited threats to the medicinal plants of the area. The local traditional medicine practitioners engage in little or no conservation, causing concern over the sustainable use of these resources. Moreover, the system to transfer indigenous knowledge from generation to generation is slow and restricted. Hence, indigenous knowledge is being eroded and there is a need to document the information before it is lost. The phytochemical and biological properties claimed for these medicinal plant resources need further investigation.