Census Ethnobotanical Study of Some Plants Used in Traditional Medicine in the City of Meknes

Abstract

An ethnobotanical survey was conducted in the city of Meknès over a period of two years, from 2009 to 2011 with 1000 people (615 women, 385 men). Through the questionnaire, schedules were established to collect information on the use of therapeutic medicinal plants by the local population. This research has focused primarily on the general population, herbalists and healers. The present investigation has enumerated 194 species distributed in 165 genera and 72 families. The most represented families are Lamiaceae (18%), the Aseraceae, (17%), the Apiaceae (14%) and the Fabaceae (10%). The results of the survey show that 54% of individuals use both herbal medicine and modern medicine, 26% of individuals use herbs and 20% use modern medicine. We are interested in the use of plants in different ages and sexes. We report that 31% of the population is aged between 51 and 60 years, 29% between 41 and 50 years, 23% between 31 and 40 years, 10% between 21 and 30 years, 3% less than 20 years and 4 % > 60 years. We note the predominance of women over men. Women use up to 61% against 39% of men. The analysis of our results shows that herbal medicine takes a place in the self-medication of the population studied. However, we emphasize an important point: Ignorance of toxic plants, in fact, only 19% of the target population recognizes these plants.