Abstract

Baha Saadi, Fouad Msanda and Hassan Boubaker*

The present work was undertaken with the aim to collect detailed information about the usage of plants in human therapy in the Imouzzer Ida Outanane region (south-western Morocco). The survey was carried out over a period of 15 months, by means of semi-structured and structured interviews. A total of 350 interviews were conducted with traditional health practitioners and with people who had knowledge in traditional medicine. For this purpose, we collected information about the plants used, the prescriptions and the procedure applied to prepare the used plant. A total of 119 plant species representing 101 genera and 52 families were used in the treatment of various diseases. The most encountered medicinal plant families were Lamiaceae (18 species), Asteraceae (14 species), Apiaceae (10 species) and Fabaceae (8 species). Plant leaves were the most commonly used plant part, and decoction and infusion were the most common methods of traditional drug preparation. The major source of remedies came from wild plants, indicating that cultivation of medicinal plants is not a common practice. This study has established a monograph of medicinal plants used in traditional herbal medicine in Imouzzer Ida Outanane region of south-western Morocco.