Ethno-medicinal and bio-cultural importance of aloes from south and east of the Great Rift Valley floristic regions of Ethiopia

Anteneh Belayneh; Sebsebe Demissew; Negussie F Bussa; Daniel Bisrat

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04344

Ethno-medicinal and bio-cultural importance of aloes from south and east of the Great Rift Valley floristic regions of Ethiopia

Heliyon. 2020 Jun 29;6(6):e04344. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04344. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Authors

Anteneh Belayneh¹, Sebsebe Demissew², Negussie F Bussa³, Daniel Bisrat⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Haramaya University, Ethiopia.
² The National Herbarium, Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
³ Institute of Technology, Department of Food Science and Post-harvest Technology, Haramaya University, Ethiopia.
⁴ Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.

Abstract

There are 46 Aloe species identified from Ethiopia out of which 67.3% are endemics but comprehensive data on their ethno-medicinal and bio-cultural values are lacking. Interview, focus group discussion (FGD), and guided field walks were conducted with 210 respondents (152 men and 58 women). Relative frequency of citation (RFC_s), informants' consensus factor (F_ic), use value (UV_s), relative importance index (RI_s), and cultural value index (CV) were analyzed. Non-parametric Kruskal Wallis and Wilcoxon tests were performed using R software. Twenty-three Aloe species were recorded in the study areas with 196 use-reports and 2158 citations, grouped into six major use categories (N_UC = 6). Medicinal use categories accounted for 149 use-reports (76%) with 1607 citations. The species with the highest numbers of use-reports were Aloe megalacantha subsp. alticola, A. trichosantha subsp. longiflora and A. calidophila of which 87, 75 and 61.1% respectively were medicinal uses. Aloe calidophila has highest values in all indices UV (11.72), RFC (0.68), RI (0.89), and CV (6.2). Among Aloe parts, leaf exudate accounted for 111 use-reports (49.1%) of which 92.9% were used for medicinal purposes. Aloe retrospiciens and A. ruspoliana were reported poisonous to carnivores. F_ic values of the six major use categories ranged from 0.86 to 0.22. Elderly people (>60) had more knowledge than 25-40 and 41-60 age groups (Kruskal-Wallis chi-squared = 12.17, df = 3, p = 0.006), which is significant difference in depth of ethno-medicinal knowledge. Men had more knowledge of medicinal uses than women (Wilcoxon test, p = 0.002) significantly different, while women were knowledgeable than men for cultural uses like, cosmetic (Wilcoxon test, p = 0.06), not significantly different. The ways in which aloes are used and valued have implications for their future medicinal utility, which instigate detailed phytochemical and pharmacological studies.

Keywords: Aloe calidophila; Aloe exudate; Aloe gel; Aloe retrospiciens; Environmental science; Ethnomedicine; Health sciences; Pharmaceutical science; Veterinary medicine.