Medicinal Plants Used by Tanzanians for Human Paediatric Ailments: A PRISMA‐Guided Systematic Review of Ethnomedicinal Evidence

Paediatric ailments (PAs) pose an increasing health and economic challenge in many low- and middle-income countries. In Tanzania, over 80% of the rural population relies on traditional medicine for primary healthcare. Although documentation of medicinal plants (MPs) used to treat and manage PAs remains fragmented, this systematic review consolidates evidence on MPs used by Tanzanians to address these conditions. A comprehensive search was conducted across multiple databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Embase, Cochrane Library and Wiley Online Library) and grey literature sources, using predefined keywords related to PAs and MPs. The search covered publications from 1982 to 2024 and followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Data from 34 ethnobotanical studies were analysed using descriptive statistics in Microsoft Excel. A total of 146 MPs from 54 families were documented, with Fabaceae (10.9%) and Asteraceae (8.9%) the most frequently used families. Approximately 59.6% of MPs were collected from wild ecosystems, while 15.8% were sourced from cultivated ecosystems. The analysis of recipes shows that leaves (52.1%) and roots (39.0%) are the preferred parts, with shrubs (46.0%) the dominant life form. 63.0% of the MPs have shown positive pharmacological effects, while 37.0% lack scientific evidence but may offer potential remedies. Of the recorded MPs, 80.8% were native, and 19.2% were introduced and used to treat 51 PAs in the country. The data from this review substantially enhance the literature on MPs for paediatric diseases and can aid the development of new pharmaceutical products to reduce child mortality.