Ethnomedical Knowledge of Plants Used in Nonconventional Medicine for Wound Healing in Lubumbashi, Haut-Katanga Province, DR Congo

• Published in: TheScientificWorld 2024, Vol.2024 (1), p.4049263
• Main Authors: Valentin, Bashige Chiribagula, Philippe, Okusa Ndjolo, Henry, Manya Mboni, Salvius, Bakari Amuri, Suzanne, Masengu Kabeya, Kasali, Félicien Mushagalusa, Baptiste, Lumbu Simbi Jean
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Agelanthus zizyphifolius; Care and treatment; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Erigeron sumatrensis; Ethnobotany; Ethnomedicine; Fabaceae; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Herbal medicine; Households; Humans; Male; Medicinal plants; Medicine; Medicine, African Traditional - methods; Medicine, Botanic; Medicine, Herbal; Medicine, Traditional - methods; Middle Aged; Phytotherapy - methods; Plants, Medicinal; Polls & surveys; Sample size; Securidaca longipedunculata; Sex ratio; Surveys; Ulcers; Wound healing; Wound Healing - drug effects; Wounds and injuries
• ISSN: 2356-6140; 1537-744X; 1537-744X
• DOI: 10.1155/2024/4049263

Medicinal plants used for wound healing in Lubumbashi have yet to be discovered. Inventory or profile of their taxa has yet to be established. The present study was carried out to survey the plants used in traditional medicine in Lubumbashi to treat wounds and to define their ethnomedical characteristics. The study was conducted between March 2021 and August 2022, using semistructured interview surveys of households (  = 2730), herbalists (  = 48), and traditional practitioners: TPs (  = 128).The 2,906 interviewed (sex ratio M/F = 0.9; mean age: 56 ± 3 years; and experience: 17 ± 4 years) provided information on 166 taxa, 130 used against chronic wounds, among which was the top cited. Most of these taxa are shrubs (33%), belonging to 48 botanical families dominated by the Fabaceae (16%). They are indicated in 70 other pathologies. From these 166 taxa, 198 healing recipes are obtained, 11 combining more than one plant. In all these recipes, the leaf (>36%) is the most used part, and the poultice (>36%) is the most popular form of use. Twelve taxa are cited for the first time as medicinal plants, of which has the highest consensus and has the highest usual value. For the various plants used to treat wounds, some of which are specific to the region, further studies should focus on validating this traditional use.