exploration ethnobotanique des plantes medicinales employées par les herboristes d'ain temouchent pour traitement des affectations gasto-intestinales

Abstract

Phototherapy is an ancestral practice often adopted by patients suffering from chronic or serious pathologies, such as gastric conditions which are very widespread and which affect the world population as well as Algeria. The use of herbal medicine is common in Africa, particularly in Algeria. With the aim of studying the nature and frequency of use of medicinal plants used by patients with gastrointestinal disorders, to identify the herbs used, and finally to identify their beneficial effects; an ethnobotanical study was carried out with 37 herbalists in the Ain Temouchent region (Ain Temouchent, Beni Saf, Hamam Bouhdjar).To this end, a questionnaire was conducted among these herbalists for a period of 05 months (February Ŕ June 2024). The information collected was processed and analyzed by software Excel 2007. The results obtained show that: 97.29% of herbalists are men, 65% are sellers of aromas and spices, 35% are herbalists, the age of 64.8% of herbalists is between 40- 50 years old, 75.6% are married, 37.8% have primary and secondary education, 16.20% have university education. In our study, 68 species were identified and divided into 32 botanical families with a predominance of the Lamiaceae family (11 species) 16.17%, the Apiaceae (08 species) 11.76% and Rosaceae 08, 82%. The most cited plants being: Myrtus Communis 91.89%, Foeniculum Vulgare 89.18%; Pimpinella Anisum 81.08%; Punica Granatum 72.97%; Cuminum Cyminum 67.56%; Matricaria Chamomilla 54.05%; Carum Caraway 51.35%. The most used parts were the seeds 97.29% and the leaves 89.18%, the most used methods of preparation were infusion 83.78% and decoction 56.75%. The use of medicinal plants was characterized by the use of a mixture of herbs and the most frequent combination was Fennel + Anise in 11.78% of cases and Fennel + Anise + Myrtle 09.80%. In light of this work; the effectiveness of medicinal plants is recognized in relieving the symptoms of gastrointestinal disorders; but their conventional use will have to go through multiple research in order to clarify their effectiveness and safety.