Traditional Uses of Seven Medicinal Plants for Malaria Treatment in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso

Objective: Malaria remains the leading cause of consultation, hospitalization and mortality in Burkina Faso’s health facilities. To treat this disease, the majority of the global population uses medicinal plants. The aim of this study was to investigate the traditional use of A. leiocarpus, C. sieberiana, C. planchonii, S. longepedunculata, T. emetica, X. americana and Z. zanthoxyloïdes by traditional healers for malaria treatment in Bobo-Dioulasso, to provide effective guidance for phyto-pharmacological studies. Material and methods: The plants were identified and authenticated by a botanist and specimens were used to conduct an ethnobotanical survey using a semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire. The survey focused on healers’ socio-demographic profile and malaria knowledge, and on each plant’s ethnomedical uses for malaria treatment. The Relative Frequency Citation (RFC) index was used to calculate the frequency of plant use. Results: 48 traditional healers with good knowledge of medicinal plants and malaria symptoms were surveyed. A. leiocarpus (100%), C. planchonii (100%), C. sieberiana (77.1%) and T. emetica (56.25) were the plants most frequently cited as antimalarial drugs by the healers. For malaria treatment with each plant, healers used C. planchonii dried root decoction or maceration, C. sieberiana dried root decoction, all collected during the dry season, and A. leiocarpus and T. emetica fresh leaves decoction, collected during the rainy season. Treatments were administered orally. All the plants are also used to treat various other pathologies. Conclusions: The results of this study could serve as a basis for pharmacological investigations of these plants for malaria treatment.