Ethnomedicinal studies on medicinal plants used by people of Rif, Morocco

Background: Since early times, the people of Morocco use medicinal and aromatic plants as traditional medicine to heal different human ailments. However, little studies have been made in the past to properly document and promote the traditional ethnomedical knowledge.

Objective: This study was carried out in the Rif (North of Morocco), it aimed to establish the catalog of medicinal plants and to identify medicinal and aromatic plant used by the local people to treat diseases, together with the associated ethnomedicinal knowledge.

Material and Methods: The ethnomedical information collected was from 1000 local healers using semi-structured interviews, free listing and focus group. Family importance value (FIV), relative frequency of citation (RFC), plant part value (PPV), fidelity level (FL) and informant consensus factor (ICF) were employed in data analysis. Medicinal and aromatic plant were collected, identified and kept at the natural resources and biodiversity laboratory, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra.

Results: During the present study 290 medicinal plant species belonging to 74 families has been documented. The most frequent ailments reported were osteoarticular diseases (ICF = 0.9818). The majority of the remedies were prepared from decoction (38.6%). Leaves were the most frequently used plant part (PPV 0.364) and Rosmarinus officinalis L. (RFC = 0.189) was the specie most commonly prescribed by local herbalists.

Conclusions: The results of this study showed the existence of indigenous ethnomedicinal knowledge of medicinal plants in the Moroccan Rif to treat diseases. Further research on phytochemical, pharmacological and toxicological should be considered to discover new drugs from these documented plants.