An Ethno Pharmacological New Strategy for Discovery of Potential Antihypertensive Plants in Cameroon

Objective: Manifold plants are documented in the world, but arterial hypertension still an important public health challenge in both developing and developed countries. Therefore the objective of the study is to identify several herbal medicines used in the treatment of arterial hypertension in Cameroon. Methods: The survey was undertaken between 2003 and 2016 with the aim of establishing a new ethnopharmacological strategy for identifying potential antihypentive plants in Cameroon’s population. Three phytogeographic areas in which live 1131 randomly screened interviewees distributed in 58 socio-cultural groups were involved in this study. In the first phytogeographic area live 293 interviewers distributed in 16 socio-cultural groups. In the second live 277 interviewees distributed in 14 socio-cultural groups and in the third live 561 interviewees distributed in 23 socio-cultural groups. The survey was successfully achieved, using a cluster sampling procedure in each ethnic group. The potential anti arterial hypertensive plants were selected using an extended criterion of identification of suspected anti arterial hypertensive plants and suspected arterial hypertensive patients defined as follow: if a single plant is used to treat three signs, three symptoms and/or three complications of arterial hypertension, we considered it as an anti-arterial hypertensive plants and the person who presented these three signs, three symptoms and/or three complications is a suspected arterial hypertensive patient. Results: The observation of 24.39% of suspected arterial hypertensive patients relieved by traditional healers’ symptomatic treatments and 50% of recorded suspected anti arterial hypertensive plants that were confirmed by previous pharmacological studies, showed promising perspectives for the criterion used. Conclusion: The data provide evidence that potential anti arterial hypertensive plants are common in Cameroon more than usual anti arterial hypertensive species. They should serve as plants documented for the new anti-arterial hypertensive drugs discovery for the prevention and control of this disease worldwide.