Ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological study of medicinal plants used for the treatment of diseases of the digestive tract in the High Atlas Central of Morocco (North Africa)

Abstract

This ethnopharmacological and ethnobotanical study was carried out between 2015 and 2017 in the Central High Atlas of Morocco. The goal is to value herbal medicine used as remedies in traditional treatment of the digestive tract. This study identified 84 species. They are divided into 75 genera and 37 Botanical families among which the most dominant are the Lamiaceae (14 species) and the Asteraceae (5 species). Decoction (41.11%) is the most used method of preparation. Oral administration with 95% remains the main route of administration of phytomedicines and drying the main method of preservation of drugs by the local population. These results reveal that medicinal plants play a very important role in the traditional treatment of gastric diseases in this study area. They constitute a database for subsequent studies to experimentally assess the biological and chemical potentials of these plants.