Survey of Some Medicinal Plants Employed for Managing Diabetes Mellitus in Hadejia Town, Nigeria

Diabetes is a widely spread disorder that disturbs humans in the underdeveloped as well as the developed countries worldwide. The figure of those people suffering from the disease is shooting up specifically in Nigeria.  A study of traditional plant use was carried out to formalize common herbal plants already in use for the management of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in Hadejia town, Jigawa state, Nigeria. Formal meetings were organised to document details about the medicinal plants used in the treatment of DM and their topical names, methods of preparation/administration, plant parts in use, and the demographic characteristics of the interviewees in the study. Sixty (60) participants were interviewed, of which 45% were within the age group of 31-40 years, 38.3% were within the age group of 41-50 years, while 10% were within the age group of 51-60 years. Most of the participants were married (91.6%), male (71.6%), farmers (23.3%) and traditional medicine practitioners (26.6%). Further, half (50%) of the participants were attending Islamic schools; some were not having a formal education with a percentage of (33.3%). Also, fifteen (15) plants which belong to 12 families were documented as being used for the management of DM in Hadejia town. The families Amaryllidaceae, Fabaceae, Myrtaceae, and Combretaceae, were the highly pronounced families in this research, while leaves, stem bark, and roots were the most commonly used plant parts. A high level of consensus was observed (0.67) among the participants. This work was carried out in order to provide background data on the herbal plants in use traditionally for the management of DM in the study area.