Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants Used to Treat Human Diseases in Nono-Sele District, Illubabor Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Plants are used by human societies for a variety of purposes, including food, clothing, and shelter, religious rituals, ornamental, and health care. The aim of this study was to investigate an ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants and related indigenous knowledge of the community of the study area. A crossectional study design was employed and Semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect ethnobotanical information from 325 informants. Informants were sampled by using Cochran sample size formula and Snowball technique was used to select informants. Moreover, semi-structured interview, group discussion, market survey, guided field walk and observation were methods of ethnobotanical data collection. SPSS version 25 and MS excel spreadsheet version 16 were used to analyze ethnobotanical data. Ninety three (93) plant species belonging to 77 genera and 39 families were documented. The most frequently reported plant species belong to family Asteraceae 12 (12.9%) followed by Fabaceae 10 (10.8%), Solonaceae 8 (8.6%) and Lamiaceae 7 (7.5%) family. Herbs accounted the highest proportion 42 (45.16%) followed by tree 25 (26.88%). Most of the herbal remedies were prepared from leaves 66 (50.4%) followed by fruits 16 (12.4%). Most of the herbal medicines were prepared from fresh 110 (84.3%) plants and mode of preparation was mostly by crushing 52 (39.69%). Among mode of administration of medicinal plants oral route 84 (64.1%) was the dominant route of administration. The study area is rich in medicinally important plant species and it is a good reservoir of medicinal plants.