Ethnobotanical Survey of Traditional Medicinal Practices in LaelayAdi-yabo District, Northern Ethiopia

A comprehensive assessment study with the aim of identifying and documenting traditional medicinal practices were carried out inLaelayAdi-yabo district, Northern Ethiopia in September 2016. Purposive sampling method was used to select traditional medicinal practitioners of the study area. Semi-structured questionnaire, interview and Focused Group Discussion were conducted to gather first hand ethnobotanical information on medicinal plants used for human and livestock ailments. A total of 28 knowledgeable informants were participated. Descriptive statistics and rankings were used to analyze data. A total of 37 medicinal plant species belonging to 37 genera and 24 families were reported. The habits of the plants were 29% each (shrubs, trees and herbs) and 10% climbers. Most frequently used plant part were leaves (34%) followed by roots (24%), seed (6%) and the remaining were other parts. Crushing was the most common way of remedy preparation. While, healing knowledge transfer varies within family. The result of the study revealed the existence of traditional healing knowledge had conserved the diversity of medicinal plants. Traditional Healers still play a great role in the primary health care systems in North Ethiopia. The sparsely distributed forests were important resources of healers and repositories of medicinal plants gene pools.