Background

All 101 study participants suffered most from gastrointestinal (GI) and skin-related diseases in childhood. These diseases pose a serious health risk and financial burden to multiple local communities in developing countries like South Africa. Thus, numerous people from these communities with no-to-minimal access to modern medicines depend on traditional medications to meet the primary healthcare needs of their children. However, there is a significant lack of proper records of medicinal plants for childhood diseases.

About the study

In the present ethnobotanical survey study, researchers conducted all participant interviews in a local language, Setswana, to record information about the incidence of childhood diseases, plants used to manage and treat these diseases, plant parts used for the treatment, and their methods of preparation and administration. They even showed disease photographs to the participants as a visual aid to assist with disease identification and ensure they extracted reliable data during the survey.

The team compiled data on 61 medicinal plants from 34 families, used for managing 29 childhood diseases falling under seven broad disease categories. Based on previously used ethnobotanical indices, they used three quantitative parameters, use-value (UV), frequency of citation (FC), and informed consensus factor (ICF), to analyze this data.

Conclusions

The current study presented a valuable plant inventory that could help the ongoing efforts of documenting and promoting indigenous knowledge regarding medicinal plants usable for childhood disease management. Given the continuous dependence on plants to meet the primary healthcare needs of children among several communities in developing countries, future research in this area should continue to document more medicinal plants.

Moreover, future studies should explore the phytochemical profile, safety profile, and biological efficacy of all the medicinal plants identified in this survey and the new, yet-to-be-identified ones.