Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used in treatment of ticks

Abstract

The documentation of traditional knowledge on medicinal use of plants has provided many important drugs that are used worldwide on a daily basis. Traditional remedies had been (and still are) the main source of livestock ailment treatments, especially in regions of poor resources of the Vhembe District, South Africa. In many rural areas of the Republic of South Africa, traditional medicine is sometimes the only available modern orthodox health care for managing both human and animal health. Much work remains to be done regarding the documentation of the existing ethnobotanical knowledge. In this work, we report an inventory list of ethnoveterinary, medicinal plants used in treatment of tick infested wounds. Sampling was made in the Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa through interview surveys. A list of 25 medicinal plants was compiled from 4 local municipalities within the District. Some plants were more frequently mentioned than others. Knowledge about the ethnoveterinary plant use differed between sex and age groups within the municipalities.