Abstract:
Invasive alien plants (IAPs) are non-native species that have spread beyond the
introduction site; become abundant to an extent that they serve as agents of change
that also threaten native biological diversity (Garcia-Berthou, 2007). IAPs have
medicinal applications for the treatment of various aliments in humans (Jäger et al.,
1996).
In this study, an ethnomedicinal survey was conducted on medicinal uses of invasive
alien plant species in order to identify and investigate the various disease treatment
methods employed by Bapedi traditional health practitioners within Capricorn District.
Six traditional health practitioners were randomly selected, via the snowball method
from each of the five local municipalities namely: Aganang, Blouberg, Lepelle-Nkupi,
Molomole and Polokwane. The whole survey included 30 traditional health
practitioners. A semi structured questionnaire was administered to document
information about the medicinal uses of IAPs from participants. The collected data
from the questionnaire was captured in Microsoft Excel 2010 and analyzed using
descriptive statistics.
The study recorded 22 IAPs belonging to 14 plant families. Records or data collected
show invasive alien plants species to have been used for treatment of different
alignments amongst Bapedi traditional health practitioners. Plant families with the
most recorded species include: Solanaceae and Myrtaceae with 18.2% for both of
them. The plant parts most frequently used in descending order were as follows: roots
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(40%), followed by the leaves (39%), fruits (7%), thorns (6%), bark (4%), seeds (2%)
and lastly stems (2%). Decoction was recorded as the most dominant method used
during medicinal preparations (n = 176) and flu was recorded as the most treated
ailment amongst traditional health practitioners (n = 29).
Apart from clearing IAPs as part of management strategy by South African
government, there are other alternative innovative ways that can be employed to
ensure that the number of IAPs introduced does not exceed beyond measure.This
could be achieved by encouraging local people to use them as either medicinal
sources or by incorporating them into any other local ethnobotanical use. The new
innovative ways (such as traditional health practitioners utilizing the IAPs instead of
endangered plants or indigenous plants species) can bring in some form of relief to
the already declining indigenous species populations. Research scholars from
different research institutes and higher education research centres can regard IAPs
used medicinally as source of new pharmaceutical leads to create new medications.
With such attention turned to alien invasive species, their survival as well as their
spread will be kept on check at the same time creating a control measure to their
spread with little effort. Further laboratory-based studies are needed to determine
efficiency and safety of the IAPs used by traditional health practitioners in this study.
