Traditional Remedies for Diarrhea: Plant Inventory and Phytochemical Insights from Man, Côte d’Ivoire | InformativeBD

Ta Bi Irié Honoré, from the institute of Côte d’Ivoire. Aké-Assi Emma , from the institute of Côte d’Ivoire . and N’guessan Koffi, from the institute of Côte d’Ivoire. wrote a Research Article about, Traditional Remedies for Diarrhea: Plant Inventory and Phytochemical Insights from Man, Côte d’Ivoire. entitled, Plants used against diarrhea in traditional medicine of Man, western Côte d’Ivoire: Inventory and phytochemical screening. This research paper published by the Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES). an open access scholarly research journal on Biodiversity. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences | INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

Diarrhea is a public health problem in Côte d’Ivoire. To contribute to the fight against the disease, this study was undertaken in the city of Man from January 2 to May 31, 2024 with traditional practitioners in the city. It allowed us to interview 88 people practicing in this field of traditional medicine. The study inventoried 30 plants belonging to 17 botanical families with a dominance of Fabaceae and Euphorbiaceae. The leaves, leafy stems, roots and whole plants are the parts of the plants used in anti-diarrheal treatments. These plant organs are prepared by decoction, maceration, kneading and trituration. The medicinal recipes are administered as decoction orally and as purge anally. The plant species cited during this study are: Amphicarpaea bracteata (FCe = 0.58) and Ocimum gratissimum (FCe = 0.49). A phytochemical screening was carried out on the aqueous extracts of these two plants to search the scientific basis of their anti-diarrheal properties. These tri-phytochemical tests indicated the presence of sterols, polyterpenes, polyphenols, flavonoids, alkaloids and saponins. These chemical groups could justify the use of these plants in traditional medicine. These two plant species should therefore be the subject of more in-depth pharmacological tests for the implementation of new molecules against diarrhea.

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Introduction

Current knowledge places the beginning of humanity at 7 million years ago (Guy, 2009). Since then, man has used plants (Ta et al., 2023). This observation is linked to the use of plants in various areas of life, such as housing, food and health (N'guessan, 2008). The relationships between man and plants have led to the emergence of several sciences: ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, ethnopharmacology. Ethnopharmacology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of all materials of plant, animal or mineral origin and the knowledge or practices related to them, which vernacular cultures implement to modify the states of living organisms for therapeutic, curative, preventive or diagnostic purposes (Fleurentin, 2012). It is also called traditional medicine which is based on empirical knowledges and pratices. Today, the use of plants for health is widespread not only in developing countries but also in developed societies (Doh et al., 2023). Like other countries, the traditional medicine of Côte d’Ivoire, offers remedies for all human pathologies even if they are curable for modern medicine. The conditions treated are diverse: asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and especially diarrhea, the subject of this study. Diarrhea is a transit disorder characterized by soft or liquid stools, in abnormally high quantities or with an increased frequency of occurrence (Randremanana, 2012). It can be caused by bacterial, viral or parasitic infections. Diarrhea is the third leading cause of death at any age (Assogba, 2012) and the 5th leading cause of premature death in the world (WHO, 2014). In Côte d'Ivoire, diarrhea is a public health problem. However, the management of diarrheal diseases is limited by the inaccessibility of certain populations to hospitals and the high cost of pharmaceutical drugs (Ambé et al., 2015). In Man, the site of this study, diarrheal diseases are the 2nd cause of consultation after malaria. Faced to this worrying health situation, the use of plants becomes an appropriate solution. This study is part of this perspective. It is therefore a contribution to the search for new plants of anti-diarrheal properties. It lists the plants proposed by traditional practitioners of Man against diarrhea and seeks the scientific basis for their use through a phytochemical screening.

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