Therapeutic utility of plants from the Mountains of Man, Côte d'Ivoire

ABSTRACT To find out the medicinal contribution to the local population of the plants colonizing the mountains of the town of Man, we traveled 5 mountains and interviewed 129 people from the said town. The chosen mountains are called: Kôh mountain, Mount Zélé, Glaha mountain, Glèhè mountain and Gôhô mountain. These mountains were chosen for their significant plant diversity. Plots made at an altitude of 300 to 400 meters were used to inventory the plants. Two indices were used to evaluate the ethnobotanical data, namely the frequency of citation of species (FC) and the relative exploitation level of these plants (NER). The study made it possible to inventory 48 plant species divided into 44 genera and 26 families. The Fabaceae family is the most represented. Ethnomedic investigations revealed the use of these plants in the treatment of 25 common pathologies. The leaves are the organs most used in these treatments. And the technique for preparing drugs is decoction. The ethnobotanical indices evaluated indicated that the species best exploited by the population are Alchornea cordifolia and Euphorbia hirta with a NER = 55% each. These indices also reveal that Chromolaena odorata (FR = 19.58%) and Tithonia diversifolia (FR = 13.23%) are the most common species found at low altitude in the Man Mountains. The results of this work could stimulate further in-depth studies on mountain plants in the search for effective phytomedicines. Keywords: Ethnobotany, Medicinal plants, Mountains, Man, Côte d’Ivoire