Ethnobotanical study of woody medicinal plants used in the traditional pharmacopoeia in the three sub-division of the Mayo-Tsanaga department (Far North, Cameroon)

The conservation and rational management of medicinal plants require preliminary studies of ethnobotanical. It is for this reason that the present study on the woody medicinal plants of the three sub-division of Mayo-Tsanaga subjected to anarchic exploitation was undertaken. The aim of this study was to contribute to a better understanding of woody medicinal plants used in traditional pharmacopoeia, with a view to their sustainable management for conservation and use by the population. The study was carried out with herbalists, traditional practitioners, phytotherapists or any other person who uses plants for therapeutic purposes in three sub-divisions of the Mayo-Tsanaga division through the use of ethnobotanical survey forms. The results were processed using Statgraphics plus 5.0 version 11.0 and the Excel spreadsheet program. Following our series of surveys, the studies enabled us to identify 97 plant species used in the traditional medicine, belonging to 72 genera and 31 families. The most represented families are Fabaceaea (21 species), Combretaceae (9 species), Anacardiaceae (8 species) and Malvaceae (7 species). The most popular species used in traditional pharmacopoeia were Boswellia dalzielii (81.3%), Khaya senegalensis (80.3%), Ximenia americana (78.2%), Bauhinia rufescens (73.4%), Tamarindus indica (77.4%), Haematostaphis barteri (73.6%), Sarcocephalus latifolius (73.9%), Kigelia africana (71.8%), Guiera senegalensis (70.8%) and Sclerocarya birrea (69.3%).The results of this study showed that the bark was the most frequently plant part used in the preparation of medicine. The majority of traditional medicines were prepared in the form of decoction and oral route is their common mode of administration. This study is a source of information that contribute to the knowledge of medicinal plant flora with a view to sustainable management and to safeguard of the local popular know-how. It can also be used as a database for developing this valuable resource with a view of discovering new active ingredients for use in pharmacology and the pharmaceutical industry.