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AN INVENTORY OF
MEDICINAL PLANTS USED
BY THE NANDI PEOPLE IN
TREATMENT AGAINST
MALARIA
Jeruto Pascaline *, Mutai Charles^ and Ouma George*^
*Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), P.O Box 249 Kitale,
Kenya; ^Center for Traditional Medicine and Drug Research, Kenya Medical
Research Institute, P.O. Box 54840-00200, Nairobi, Kenya; *^Department of
Botany and Horticulture,Maseno University, P.O. Box 333, Maseno, Kenya
BACKGROUND
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Plants useful - food, shelter, clothing, fuel, medicine, crafts,
cosmetics, income & employment (Balick,1996;Karori, 2003;
Olembo,1995;Kokwaro,1976 &1993).
Herbal products- spices, tisane, medicinal raw materials,
aromatics plants, functional food ingredients, essential oils,
flavourings, fragrance products, dietary supplements and
ecological balance (Kokwaro, 1976).
80-90% Africa population(WHO,2001).
Increased demand both locally and internationally - High
population, poverty (rural and urban), increased awareness,
high cost of modern medicine, limited access to trained
doctors, food scarcity (dry and famine seasons).
Introduction…
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Malaria- major disease; affects over 90 countries; 10% of
global population
Cause 400-900 million fever cases & 3 million deaths
annually
Develops resistant strains of Plasmodium to drugs (derived
from medicinal plants.
IeCAB2010 Symposium held 115th June 2010
3
Objectives
To carry out an ethnobotanical survey and document
some medicinal plants used for treatment of
malaria and its symptoms.
Materials and methods
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Face to face interviews & semi-structured
questionnaire were administered
Information on medicinal use was taken to be correct
if given by 3 or more informants.
Ethno-information-vernacular name, part used,
preparation and dosage.
Herbarium specimens were collected using standard
herbarium techniques ( Leenhout,1968 and Stace
,1993) & Identified at UON and East Africa Herbaria
Authentic specimens deposited – Botanic garden
Maseno university herbarium (future reference)
RESULTS
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44 medicinal plants identified-27 families
 Habit of mostly used herbal plants are shrubs
(21species) & trees (10 species) and herbs (9
species).
 Liana least used (4 species)
 Plant parts frequently used – roots 58.06%, bark
(40.32%) and leaves (32.26%)
Plant parts utilized in herbal medicines
PART UTILIZED
FREQUENCY
PERCENTAGE (%)
Roots
36
58.06
Leaves
20
32.26
Bark
25
40.32
Seeds
1
41.61
Whole plant
3
4.84
Flowers
1
1.61
Bulb
1
1.61
Total
100
Conclusions
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Survey helped bring to light the uses of plant species; utility and
potentials that were previously little known.
The result indicates richness of medicinal floristic diversity in Nandi
district and possible on-farm conservation.
Acknowledgment
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Nandi people for sharing generously their knowledge
of medicinal plants with us
 Co-authors
 SGS-
Grants
THANK YOU