Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants of Goro District of Bale Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract This study was conducted on the Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants Goro District, Bale Zone, Oromia Ethiopia. The objective of this study was assessment of medicinal plants for the treatments of human and livestock ailment and documenting indigenous medicinal knowledge of the people. Semi-structured interview and questionnaire were the data collecting tools of this study. Data were analyzed using informant consensus factor (ICF), paired comparison, direct matrix ranking and preference ranking. A total of 39 species of medicinal plants were collected and identified for treating 32 human ailments and 10 Livestock ailments. Most (22, 56.41%) of the traditional medicinal plants were wild while 12 species (30.76%) were gotten from home garden and the remaining 5 species (12.82%) were obtained both from home garden and the wild. Most of the medicinal plant preparations were used in fresh form (28, 73.68%) while some were in dried form (10, 26.32%). It was found that 58.97 % of medicinal plants have values other than their medicinal role. The parts of a plant used for remedy preparation of human and livestock ailments are leaves stood first (35.89%), followed by root (10.25%), root and leaf accounted for 10.25%, seeds 7.69% of preparation, latex 2.56%, bark 5.13% of the preparations. The local community use different forms of remedy preparations and applications to treat livestock diseases. The common forms of preparations are crashing and squeezing (31.03%), pounded (23.68%) crushing, (21.15%), powdering (10.25%), chewing (5.13%), and others. Leaves were the most wildly used plant parts for herbal medicine preparation and medicinal plants preparation mostly involves single plants, the mode of administration is mainly through mouth. Deforestation for agricultural purpose was the major threat to medicinal plants in the study area. 1