Floristic and Ethnopharmacological Investigation of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Used by indigenous communities of the Rif, Morocco.

For thousands of years, plants have been utilized for their medicinal properties, and even today, numerous modern medicines are derived from plant compounds or draw inspiration from them. A research project was conducted in the Rif region of Morocco to uncover medicinal plants used for treating digestive system diseases and gather associated ethnomedicinal information. From July 2016 to July 2018, a comprehensive ethnomedicinal review was conducted, involving semi-structured interviews with 732 traditional healers serving as informants. Various quantitative indices, including family cultural importance, salience index, plant part value, informant agreement ratio, and fidelity level, were used to analyze the collected data statistically. The identified medicinal herb species were collected, documented, and preserved at the Plant, Animal Production, and Agro-industry Laboratory. Eighty-seven plant species were identified, belonging to 73 genera and 42 families. Among them, Apiaceae, with ten species, was the most commonly utilized plant family. Gastric ulcers were reported as the most prevalent illness (IAR = 0.97). Most herbal treatments consisted of decoctions (42.12%); the leaf was the most frequently employed plant part (PPV = 0.344). Thymus saturejoides Coss. was the most commonly recommended medicinal species by local traditional healers (SI = 0.240). This study highlights the reliance of traditional healers in the Moroccan Rif region on medicinal herbs. Further exploration of these documented plants' phytochemical, pharmacological, and toxicological properties is necessary to uncover new drugs and explore potential synergies between traditional and modern medicine.