Ethnobotany

Abstract

Ethnobotany is a life science which studies the interaction between human beings and flora in particular and broadly deals with the investigations, observations, and identifications of botanical diversity used for the prevention and treatment of human and livestock ailments. The current chapter reviews the history and development of ethnobotany and the involvement of this branch of science in the innovation and derivation of drug products which is originated from plants and claimed by the traditional healers and indigenous people used for the prevention and treatment of disease. This chapter also combines interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary methods that can lead to further productive, comprehensive, and systemic guesstimates in the investigation of the relationship between the plants and humans. Regardless of its various bottlenecks, ethnobotany becomes an attractive and hopeful area of research. It also covers ethnobotanical knowledge and modern science, ethnobotany research and their applications, plant conservation and sustainable management practices, taxonomy, and economic botany. The chapter also deals with the ways in which different societies and cultures have come to perceive, know, use, classify, and symbolically represent plants and animals.

1. Introduction

1.1 Ethnobotanical terms and concepts

The word ethnobotany was first announced by American botanist John Harshberger in 1896 as “the study of interaction of human beings with flora.” Ethnobotany is a life science which studies the interaction between human beings and flora in particular and broadly deals with the investigations, observations, and identifications of botanical diversity used for the prevention and treatment of human and livestock ailments [1]. It also studies about the indigenous people knowledge, beliefs, and practices (i.e. it may be cultural and religious practices) related with medicinal plants. Also it includes how human beings categorize, isolate, and associate with floras besides with joint relationships of floras and human beings. The ethnobotanists should have to discuss with native community to share their routine life and to respect their cultures in order to obtain valuable information about the plants used for the medicinal purpose. Ethnobotanists have an obligation both to the scientific civic and the native principles. The field of ethnobotany is a much comprehensive discipline which is concerned in all studies about the interaction between human and floras. In addition to medicinal plants, ethnobotany also give emphasis on other natural products including food, plants used in rituals, coloring agents, fiber plants, poisons, fertilizers, building materials for houses, household items, boat, etc. [2].

Botany is the science which deals with floras including physiology, morphology, genetics, ecology, distribution, taxonomy, and economic importance. Occasionally, fungi are included in botany [3]. Ethnobiology is a multidisciplinary ground that deals with the interaction of human with living things including plants and animals. Ethnobotany might be considered as a particular subdivision of ethnobiology. There is numerous specific division of ethnobotany that emphasizes one specific characteristic of the field [4]. Ethnomedicine focuses on complementary and alternative medicine including diagnostic and therapeutic along with herbal remedies. It is generally the comparison of the traditional medicines practiced by various ethnic groups, especially by indigenous people [5]. Ethnopharmacology is the study of the purposes, mechanism of action, efficacy, and safety of drugs which is herbal or plant origin, and it may include both stimulants and centrally active herbal remedies [6]. Economic botany emphasizes applied economic, agricultural, or marketable features of a plant that are used by people but does not intensely discover customary beliefs, the “ethno” side of ethnobotany. Economic botany deals with the aim of discovering novel products which are plant origin and which might be or might not be related with indigenous practices, while ethnobotany studies are documenting traditional use practices of plants by the indigenous people without considering the economic value of the plants. Ethnobotanists use different methods and materials for their ethnobotanical studies, including ancient writings, surveys, discussions with key informants, and field investigations of the relationship between the plants and human beings. They typically work together with native people or traditional healers who have knowledge about the plants to record the indigenous biodiversity including plants, and also for the identification of botanical diversity, parts used for the treatment of human and livestock diseases, and method of preparations and applications [7]. Biocultural diversity is the entire diversity demonstrated by the world’s natural and cultural arrangements. It includes both the biodiversity index (the variety of florae, faunae, territories, and ecologies) and the cultural diversity index (variety of people customs and languages). Biodiversity is calculated by sharing the amount of diverse species in specific habitat by the entire digit of persons living in that specific habitat. Cultural diversity can be measured by dividing the quantity of diverse languages, religions, and tribal groups in specific habitat by the quantity of whole persons living in that specific habitat [8].

Ethnobotany covers various disciplines, including botany, biochemistry, pharmacognosy, toxicology, medicine, nutrition, agriculture, ecology, evolution, comparative religion, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, cognitive studies, history, and archeology, due to the fact that plants have significant purpose in day-to-day activity of human beings. The multidisciplinary habit of ethnobotany permits a widespread range of methods and uses and leads to the investigation of plants in various ways by the researchers [9]. But plants with medicinal importance are usually the focus area for the investigator under the field of ethnobotany, and the study of these medicinal plants has essential role for the development of ethnobotany field [2]. It is obvious that interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary methods can lead to further productive, comprehensive, and systemic guesstimates in the investigation of the relationship between the plants and humans. Regardless of its various bottlenecks, ethnobotany becomes an attractive and hopeful area of research [9].

1.2 Applied ethnobotany and ethnoecology

In addition to developing quantitative approach for the ethnobotanical assessment, ethnobotany has progressed along with broader method, including additional features of the natural environment. Ethnobotanists somewhat frequently categorize themselves more and more as ethnobiologists or ethnoecologists for the reason that these fields bargain more prospects to evaluate the relationship between the people and the whole surroundings in addition to the societies’ interaction with the external environment including the effect of global trade on domestic economy and individual life. Since 1992, the interaction of human beings with plants has created a new term known as “applied ethnobotany” which in fact relates to studies and approaches which allow to work together with the indigenous people and traditional practitioners in an actual way, to investigate the knowledge of native people and develop a better management structures which shape specific use practices and social dynamics [10]. Applied ethnobotanies also made every effort to fill the gap between indigenous knowledge and modern practice and to recognize the association between indigenous practices and knowledge schemes and procedures, directions, and financial fashions at the nationwide and worldwide level [10]. In recent times, the term ethnoecology has been invented. Martine defines ethnoecology as a discipline which integrates many diverse academic fields. The term ethnoecology is used to incorporate all fields which designate the relationship between indigenous people and the ecosystem, including subdisciplines such as ethnobiology, ethnobotany, ethnoentomology, and ethnozoology [11]. In fact, ethnoecology is the discipline of how individuals comprehend the interaction between human beings and the living things, including animals, plants, and physical elements of a place [12].

2. Ethnobotany in history

Human being has been consuming floras meanwhile beforehand documented history. Our most primitive ancestors collected floras for foodstuff, medication, fibers, and construction supplies, momentary on their knowledge through oral customs. Farming, the exercise of generating yields and rising livestock, came about autonomously in diverse areas of the universe 10,000–15,000 years ago. Plant knowledge was an unlimited benefit in ancient societies, as it conversed a bigger opportunities of survival. Many ancient researchers took an extreme concern in botany, publishing herbals that enclosed plant information, and in addition also contained botanical importance. By using this baseline, an individual can identify and collect medicinal plants from the traditional healers own garden or from the forest and also can easily understand the method of preparations and applications. The term ethnobotany did not coin out as a discipline during the ancient civilization until earlier modern period. Despite the fact that individuals historically had a nearby relationship with the plants and various intellectuals investigated botany, rare scholars investigated the plant knowledge of an ethnic group till the twentieth century. The following are the rare leading ethnobotanical researchers and texts that aided disperse botanical knowledge all the way through the ages [8].

The ancient Egyptians (3000 B.C.) were specialists in using remedies for curative and preventive purposes. The curing of the sick was carried out by priest doctor and pharmacist “Son” who prescribed and prepared remedies. The crude drugs used for the plant derivation included Aloes, Gum, Myrrh, Poppy, Pomegranate, Colocynth, Linseed, Squill, Coriander, Onion, Anise, Melon, Castor, etc. The Ebers Papyrus found in Egypt in the 1870s contains prescriptions written in hieroglyphics for over 700 preparations. This prescription for an asthma remedy is prepared by the combination of herbs heated on a brick so that the victim possibly will inhale their smokes. The Babylonian medicine was known as Laws of Hamorabi (772 B.C.). The medicines used were mostly of vegetable origin. The medications used include 250 constituents of plant and 180 constituents of animal origin. Several of these remedies were known to the ancient Egyptians. In the Old Indian medicine, the “Riveda” and Ayurveda (Acoko 2000 B.C.) contained the holy medicinal plants. The gathering of plant constituents was undertaken only by a guiltless, pure, and religious individual. The fresh plants were considered to be most effective. The most famous Indian remedies were sandalwood, clove, pepper, cardamom, caraway, ginger, benzoin, cannabis, castor oil, sesame oil, aloes, etc. Besides the well-known acupuncture, the Chinese medicine is very recognized for the herbal remedy. The Pen Ts’ao Kang Moa (1000 B.C.) contained an unbelievable amount of herbal medicines and preparations of animal source. Their book comprises many recipes for every ailment. Among the plants and minerals highly respected for its magic well-being power were ginseng, rhubarb, ephedra, star anise, pomegranate, and aconite. Opium is a very old Chinese drug for diarrhea and dysentery. Pythagoras (560 B.C.) used drugs such as mustard and squill. Hippocrates (466 B.C.) was familiar with abundant medicines and wrote “Corpus Hipocraticum 460 B.C.” The Greek Empire was followed by that of the Romans Dioscorides who was a Greek by birth and was the first to define medicines, and his work “Greek Herbal of Dioscorides” included 5000 medicinal plants in addition to animal and mineral medicines. Pliny, who lived about the same time as Dioscorides, was also a renowned author of natural history. Galen (134–200 A.C.) was a physician and he is ascribed the use of “Galenical preparations.” Islamic literatures were found the first beginnings of chemistry, the name of which is derived from an Arabic word “Kemia,” as were also such familiar words such as alcohol and alkali. The Arabs added several new plants and medicines to those previously recognized to the Greeks and Romans. In their days, pharmacy attained its maximum reputation and developed an independent branch of medicine. It is thought-provoking to note that the first dispensary was opened in Baghdad, the center of trade in those days. The dispensary was made of sandalwood and named “Sandalia.” Rhazey (850–932 A.C.) who was born at Rai in Persia was the director of Baghdad hospital. He published a famous book “Alhawi Kabeer” [8].

3. Ethnobotanical knowledge and modern science

Out of the several plants biodiversity found on the earth surface, the plants which are used for the prevention and treatment of human and livestock disease are the significant ones due to the fact that those medicinal plants have secondary metabolites known as specialized metabolites [13]. Specialized metabolites with therapeutic possessions are dispersed throughout some plants genera, and these floras act as processing house for the natural products which are responsible for specialized metabolites [14]. The specialized metabolites have the potential biological activity that in turn used to protect the health and well-being of people and are the essential lead compounds for the modern medicines [15]. Study reported that medicinally important plants are the major source of treatment for up to 80% of the population until now, especially for underprivileged nations [16]. Also, the rest 20% of population living in higher-income countries still depends on complementary and alternative medicines which are especially plant origin and natural products [17]. Fascinatingly, out of the 25 dispensed drugs, about 12 of them are products which are plants origin [18, 19]. The role of ethnobotanists and researchers are incredible in the innovation of different present-day drugs, including artemisinin, aspirin, ephedrine, codeine and papaverine, colchicine, taxol, digoxin and digitoxin, capsaicin, tetrahydrocannabinol, and cannabidiol which are derived from Artemisia annua L., Filipendula ulmaria (L.) Maxim., Ephedra spp., Papaver somniferum L., Colchicum autumnale L., Taxus brevifolia Nutt., Digitalis purpurea L., Capsicum spp., and Cannabis sativa L., respectively [13, 20, 21, 22]. The uses of artemisinin in the modern medicine become acknowledged after a Chinese scientist (Tu Youyou) wins Nobel Prize in a year 2015 [23]. The results from the search of “medicinal plants” term on Google Scholar become more than 200,000 starting from the year 2000 until now.

Native people and ethnic groups use more than thousands of wild plants for the prevention and treatment of different human and livestock ailments, and even some of them are not identified and scientifically named still now, and hope several conventional medicines will be discovered from the plants and natural products in the future by the scientific community [24, 25, 26]. The well-known anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis had given emphasis to the role of indigenous people in supporting the invention of several plants which are medicinally important and used by this indigenous people for the treatment of different diseases [27]. Ethnobotanists can accelerate the proof of identity of plants which are medicinally important, and it is recommended that instead of conducting ethnobotanical assessment only, bioactive and lead compound can be extracted by mimicking the ethnobotanical information obtained from the indigenous people or traditional healers that can simplify the activity of bioprospecting of the plants [28]. Garnatje et al. [13, 29] advocated the term “ethnobotanical convergence” for the similar uses of plants included in the same node of a phylogeny. Although the term “ethnobotanical convergence” was condemned by Hawkins and Teixidor-Toneu [30], it is however assumed that connecting new technologies with the indigenous ethnobotanical information can accelerate the development of new modern drugs from the natural products and plants. Connecting ethnobotany with other fields such as phytochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacognosy, and molecular biology can support the botanical diversity identification and analysis of chemical constituents of medicinal plants which have the ability to prevent and treat human and livestock ailments [31]. Furthermore, approaches such as genomics and omics can also be employed to identify the genes underlying the (specialized) metabolites present in the plants characterized by high-throughput metabolomics approaches such as gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GCMS), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy [32, 33]. The proper identification, utilization, and conservation of medicinal plants can assist in providing better alternative health care services in rural areas, especially in developing countries [34, 35]. Moreover, several medicinal plants collected from the traditional healers own garden or from the forest are majorly important, and high percent of individuals relay on these medicinal plants in order to get cure from their diseases [36]. The shortage of quality health care provisions that safeguard healthy lives and encourage safety of the individuals at all ages groups especially in the third-world nations of Asia and Africa strengthens the significance of medicinal plants used by the specific ethnic groups [34, 35]. In the past more than 10 years, the majority of population in the world depends on products derived from the plants which in turn shows the increasing demands of products derived from the natural resources, and it may lead to the over-increment of the need of medicinal plants. So, the scientific community and ethnobotanists should fasten the investigation related with the development of products from the plants by working together with the indigenous people and traditional healers who have the ability to collect those plants which are medicinally useful by considering the emerging number of both communicable and noncommunicable and population growth and global climate change.

4. Plant collection and identification

A herbarium is a process of collecting dried-out plant samples that used for study purposes. The key roles of a herbarium are to make available reference materials for botanical diversity identification of newly collected specimens, help as a supply for botanists and botany subjects, record the occurrence of a plant types in a specific area, decide taxonomy concerns, and store type and voucher samples. A type specimen is the exact specimen on which the name of a taxon is based. They are vastly valued and may be stored distinctly or attached onto different colored paper to escape loss or harm. A voucher specimen helps as the root for a scientific research. It is a consistent technique to authenticate the exact identity of the plant used for the research. Incase if questions are raised about the identity of the medicinal plants, the only way to answer this questions is by using the voucher numbers given for the specific plants. So, this shows whether the plants are correctly identified by the experts [37].

The person who collects the medicinal plant specimens are not allowed collecting endangered plant species or rare plants in a specific territory. And also, the individuals should respect the local regulations and need to obtain permission from the responsible bodies/officers. Incase if the medicinal plants were found only on individuals or traditional healers own gardens, verbal informed consent or permission should be obtained from the owner of plants to collect the specimens. After the plant specimens were collected from the traditional healers own garden or from the forest, the specimens should be put into the plastic bags, labeled, pressed, and transported to the national biodiversity centers. Then, the plant materials should be dried using the appropriate drying system and prepared for the botanical diversity identification using standard herbarium procedures. The identification mechanism is taken place by the botanists or taxonomists in the laboratory. But some botanical diversity identification processes can be taken place directly in the traditional healers own garden or in the forest if the owner or laws are not permitted to collect the plant specimens. The plant specimens should be deposited in the national herbarium or biodiversity laboratory by collecting them and immediately pressing between papers using a field press. Sticky specimens may be pressed between waxed paper. The pressing procedure in between newspaper should be carried out simultaneously by collecting the specimens due to the reason that once the specimens dried, they are difficult to press and arrange. The plant specimen should be arranged to show all the significant structures including lower and upper leaf, flower heads, and so on. Large specimens can be folded or cut into sections. Bulky fruit can be cut in half; large cones can be tagged to be stored in a box. Plant specimens should be dried as rapidly after it was collected and transported to the laboratory [38].

Sticks with good plants need to be gathered for the sample. The parts of the plants collected as sample should have to encompass pure phyllotaxy and the forking scheme. For small herb, collection of more specimens as could fix on the herbarium sheet is desirable. In common, cutters are used to cut the stems, whereas for a while tallness, pruner is used, and for spiny samples, such as Berberis mucrifolia, leather glove is mandatory. For leaves and aromatic plants, digger is useful to dig out underground part. Particular plants stems lie horizontally under the ground. In such cases, the underground part should be washed from the mud elements, etc. If it is stem, then samples have been placed in a branching manner. Marine floras are light or to some extent filamentous and are hard to be organized on the page. A sheet of mounting paper is located below the moving or submerged tiny floras, and then the paper is slowly raised till the sample lies on the paper and out of the water. Then paper is raised to create a slope prudently so that it enables water runoff. These floras need to be shaken well before placing them in flimsies. Certain floras can be placed in plastic bags. The flowers that straightforwardly damage or can be lost among higher flowers from the same gathering place can be positioned in small bags within the larger bag. Unhealthy flowers, depauperate samples, diseased branches, etc., should be escaped [39].

Details about the plant specimens geographic area with the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), specimen collection date, and collection number should be noted down at the period of the specimen collection in a field notebook or electronically. This information is necessary to arrange the label for the herbarium specimen sheet. The collection number should be written on the edge of the sheet of paper. After the exact botanical diversity of the specimen becomes identified, the scientific name of their plant can be written together with the collection number. Herbarium specimen labels are organized in several means, but they usually hold a heading with state or region, province or district, country, and name of institution related with the sample, followed by the scientific name (genus, species, and author), details about the area such as geographic types or distance from adjacent town or landmark, and locale specifics (soil, altitude, humidity, etc.), Collection date, name of the specimen collector, and collection number are also significant information. The label is located at the bottommost-right-hand corner of a herbarium mounting sheet and attached immediately. Glue is also applied to the back of the plant sample, and it is organized on the mounting sheet. Lesser weight may be located on the top of the specimen till the glue is dry. Fragments of plant material such as seeds or pollen can be located in a small folded pocket, which is also glued immediately to the sheet. Once dried, the herbarium stamps the sheet with its name and assigns it an accession number. It is then filed in the herbarium cabinets that are usually ordered alphabetically as per plant family, genus, and species. Some herbaria use numerical arrangement as per the Adolf Engler method of arrangement [37].

Knowledge of plant anatomy is essential for classifying plant species. Deprived of it, a plant may be not identified correctly, with possibly severe consequences. Botanical diversity identification keys are valuable tools if you have adequate information of plant anatomy to appropriately use them. A dichotomous key offers the user with two alternatives at each stage, while a polyclave key may offer quite a lot of choices at each stage. Electronic polyclaves usually let the user to effort some well-known features of the specimen, thus removing various species in the key. It may, moreover, offer the possibility or chance that the left behind species are the right choice and may quick the user to say other features to remove further species. There are little elementary rules to make a dichotomous key. The entries should initiate with a couplet that has same first words (e.g. Leaves opposite or Leaves alternate) but are opposing statements. A leaf cannot be both alternate and opposite so that the decision is perfect. To avoid misunderstanding, they should not have several entries in a row that start with the identical word and should not use overlying ranges of measurement. Negative statements (e.g. Leaves not opposite) should also be avoided. Couplets can be numbered, lettered, or a combination of both. Occasionally indented keys use no numbers or letters at all [38].

Even though this key is only a rare line, it comprises terms that need specialized knowledge of plant anatomy. If you do not know what “samaroid wings” or “perianth” are, the key is unusable. Field guides frequently enclose keys and illustrations to support the plant identification. They usually emphasize a restricted geographic area and compressed adequate to carry in the field. A field guide lets the user to compare the unidentified plant with identified plants that cultivate in the area. Even with a good field guide and key, it is often hard to identify a plant down to the species level, specifically if it is not flowering or fruiting. If possible, a botanist will gather a specimen to take back to the laboratory for an additional systematic investigation [40].

5. Ethnobotany research and their applications

Even though many new chemical constituents have been derived and identified from medicinal plants used by the multicultural ethnic group, there are no conventional drugs synthesized from these plants using ethnobotanical knowledge and regulated as pharmaceutical products in the United States in at least in the past 40 years [41]. This may look like astonishing, considering the amount of resources and materials invested during the investigation of ethnobotanical knowledge for the past 40 years. On the other hand, indigenous knowledge about the medicinal plant is still used by the scholars and researchers for the identification of new chemical constituents and structures [42] that can be used as the main points for the development of new chemicals that have biological activity. Nowadays, the jobs for scholars and researchers have become more difficult than the past. They did not focus on finding new cultures, rather they focused on previously invented more than 4000 cultures and knowledge. An essential problem challenged by researchers on medicinal plant is that the study on medicinal plant may not all the time result in perfect separation of mechanisms of action, rather they only show “in-vitro pharmacological activity” or “in-vivo pharmacological activity on different organ or “identification chemical constituents and suggesting that it may have such activity due to the presence of this functional groups,” etc. A close relationship between ethnobotanists who conduct research for the assessment of medicinal plant use practices by the indigenous people and traditional healers and experimental pharmacologists who conduct study on the pharmacological activity of traditional medicinal plants claimed by the traditional healers is very important in order to add values on present health care system by discovering novel drugs from the natural products and plants [43].

Most of the scholars have related the current use of medicinal plants to their ancient civilization of ethnic groups by investigating the local names of the medicinal plants and uses in archival material and literature, but also more in recent times through past linguistic analysis of popular names [44, 45]. Investigation of the history of the use practices of Rhododendron tomentosum Harmaja in Norway by the indigenous people indicates continuity in vernacular names and the therapeutic indication of this medicinal plants from the first eighteenth to twentieth centuries, with only a loss in use as a salt substitute. The investigation of cognates to indigenous medicinal plant names offers us evidences to the past interaction between the medicinal plants and the native society, whereas the specific name of medicinal plants indicates some striking characteristics of the plant, color, their native uses, and views of the indigenous people [46]. Sabine Nebel’s studied that the evaluation of names for edible greens among Grecanico speakers in Italy and Greek findings shows astonishing continuity of language and customs. For instance, Portulaca oleracea L. (purslane) is called andracla in Gallicianò and andrakla in Greece. The uses of several of these medicinal plants are the most persistent form of traditional healing practices in ancient Greek civilization [38]. Spanish ethnobotanists and researchers also try to relate historical-linguistic method to the Spanish use practices of medicinal plants called manzanilla (chamomile) in drinking teas since the ages of Moorish practices in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and even further back to Dioscorides in ancient Greece [46]. Also, other researchers present an infrequent sight into Lithuanian botanical diversity classification by tracing and certainly separating the roots of cognate native names for sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.), plane tree (Platanus spp.), black poplar (Populus nigra L.), guelder rose (Viburnum opulus L.), and blessed wreaths prepared from collected rye. They show the importance and risks of using traditional texts and ethnographic data, such as melodies, mysteries, and children’s verses, as botanical indication for rebuilding the etymology and figurative history of ethnobotanical naming [47].

Many scholars give emphasis on the present uses of higher plants collected from the forest or wild not only due to the continuous historical use practices by the indigenous people or recurrence in new markets but also due to the their significance nutritional values. Generally, wild plants are nutritive because of their high content of minerals and vitamins [48, 49]. Study show that the consumption of common golden thistle (Scolymus hispanicus L.) among poor farmers in Portugal has a long history, also stretching back to ancient Roman times, and has now become popular among tourists. Underlying the use of this particular thistle, though, is the fact that it manages to maintain its high nutritional value regardless of the quality of the soils in which it grows. Native agriculturalists have acknowledged this distinctiveness and thus ignore all other thistles that cultivate in the area [49]. Also, other characteristics like sex are also essential concern in the collection and preparation of wild plants for healing and foods in Europe. Even though the depth knowledge of collection and preparation of wild fruits and plants is considered as the characteristic of females in various countries [50], but thistles collection and preparation is the activity of males in Portugal [49]. Researchers identified and presented about females who become males in the Albanian Alps: in this ancient form of transgenderism, there is convergence of the ethnomedicinal knowledge of “typical” males, regarding food and plants used for the treatment livestock ailments (ethnoveterinary), wild greens, and the ethnomedicinal knowledge of females, regarding weedy food and medicinal plants [51].

Around 679 ethnobotanical surveys were accompanied in Latin America until 2012. Out of these surveys, 41% of ethnobotanical studies were carried out in Brazil, 22% of these studies were conducted in Mexico, 9% of these surveys were carried out in Peru, 8% were conducted in Argentina, 6% were conducted in Bolivia, and 14% of the studies were conducted in the rest of the countries of Latin American continent [52]. Apart from the infamous development of ethnobiology as a field in Latin America, the amount of ethnobotanical research conveyed for the scientific community look like to delay in various countries. From the results of research conducted on ethnobatanical information in Latin America especially in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, it is true that there is rapid increment of scientific studies on the ethnobotany fields in the continent. This condition could be improved by the integration of better funds for ethnobotanical studies by investing in human resources and economic capitals and through the formation of thematic areas and ethnobotanical cultures (as observed in Brazil and Mexico). The overall objective of these thematic areas are to promote and enlarge debates on the disciplines, build protocols, and create knowledge that may fulfill the existing gaps in various areas of ethnobotany. Ethnobotanical study may also be encouraged by an escalation in the number of scientific proceedings and journals to distribute the results obtained from the researches and by the design of undergraduate courses and master programs to teach scholars who will conduct quality researches on this field. These methods can fufill the existing gaps and intervals in ethnobotanical study and also lead to the alliance of ethnobotanical knowledge throughout the Latin America continent [52].

Ethnobotany seems to have appealed its correct place among the scientific field getting finance studies, but much task yet to be conducted. There is still a lot of ethnobotanical information yet to be recorded, especially in different parts of Africa like ethnobotanical knowledge of the Khoi, Ndebele, and Swazi, as well as the relationship of this ethnic group with traditional medicinal plants, wealth of unrecorded information, especially relating to the ethnobotany of the Khoi, Ndebele, and Swazi, as well as the interaction between plants and people, folk taxonomies, historical use practices of plants, uses of plants for the treatment of livestock ailments, and medicinal plant uses before the colonial period. In addition to these, medicinal plants used for the treatment of dental disease, plant parts used for the perfumes, cosmetics, insect repellents, colorant flowers, yeast plants, thatching plants, textile plants, musical instruments, as well as hunting, fishing, and other technologies. It is very important to isolate market-based research from indigenous knowledge-based research. Hence, market-based research may depend on the profit obtained from the study within reasonable time, but the former may be of more direct value in the short term, but indigenous knowledge-based research may be more urgent and important, as a consequence of their long period role on the way to a deeper identification of medicinal plants use practices by the traditional healers and native societies, especially in Africa. Study shows that urbanization and solid traditional effects from other parts of the globe are prominent to an extraordinary loss of indigenous knowledge in South Africa. Scholars and researchers should be stimulated to grasp the chances offered by ethnobotanical study and to document the aspects of their own historical-linguistic information and indigenous medicinal plant use practices by the different ethnic groups for the sake of future generations. It is obvious that once the traditional knowledge is documented well systematically, it is not adulterated for life time. It is truly accepted that each individuals and generations can understand and interpret indigenous knowledge in different angle. The sources of present-day technologies and discoveries by the scientists are the traditional and indigenous knowledge of our illiterate ancestors. However, the investigation of native knowledge concerning medicinal plants uses for the prevention and treatment of human and livestock diseases should be given emphasis especially in Africa. Hence, it is not feasible to give oral indigenous knowledge information for the scientific community without tangible and well-documented traditional knowledge about medicinal plants use practices in Africa [53].

Study conducted on ethnobotanical study in northern Angola showed that about 2390 medicinal plants were reported to be used by the traditional healers and community. Those medicinal plants were categorized under 358 species in 96 plant families, while just 3 out of 358 stated species are endemic to Angola and about one-fifth are neophytes. As the distance from where the medicinal plants collected increased, the number of use citations also higher. According to this study, large proportion of women (83%) was involved in the collection and preparation of medicinal plants from the forest and garden. The authors of this study discover new medicinal plants used for the treatment of different ailments by the indigenous people in the study, including Gardenia ternifolia which is claimed to have anti-measles, and ethnobotanical knowledge and the chemical constituents of Annona stenophylla subsp. cuneata medicinal plant have never been identified and documented elsewhere especially in the study area. Regardless of the long-term fighting in Angola, indigenous use practices of medicinal plants for the prevention and treatment of human and livestock disease remain a crucial part of traditional heritage. For that reason, plants are critical components in all parts of livelihood, particularly in the health care system. This condition is compounded by the still low-quality medical sectors in the Angola, particularly in countryside of the countries [54].

Another study conducted on hierarchies of knowledge; ethnobotanical knowledge, practices, and beliefs of the Vhavenda in South Africa for biodiversity conservation showed that 84 medicinal plant species were stated by the respondents which are categorized under 44 families. The majority of the stated medicinal plants were categorized under the fabaceae. The authors were identified 6 new species which are not reported before in Vhavenda ethnobotanical documents, also 68 medicinal plants claimed to have new indications and another 14 species have the similar uses with previously record. In this survey, high percent of plants reported were consumed as dietary supplements (36.0%) and used for the treatment of different human and livestock diseases (26.1%) and comprised mostly indigenous plants (73.8%) paralleled to nonnative plants (26.2%). The Vhavenda takes a variety of activities for the management of plant diversity that can be endorsed to taboos avoiding the usage of endangered and rare species, advertisement of sustainable collecting activities, and the proliferation of plant species for environmental refurbishment. Also, the authors reported about 48.4% of indigenous plant knowledge was transferred to generations through family/relatives, followed by studying about plants cultivation, collecting information by individual itself, through traineeships with traditional practitioners, and through learning in the schools and clan gatherings which constituted 16.1%, 9.7% 6.4%, and 19.4%, respectively. The reasons behind the difficulty in transferring knowledge about traditional plants use practices of Vhavenda are alterations in traditional knowledge platforms for information exchange, destruction of traditional organizations, and shifting value structures. The Vhavenda ethnic groups preserve a complex “knowledge-practice-belief” structure nearby for the use, control, and protection of plant biodiversity. The documentations of indication of new medicinal plants for the different purpose in this research and the expansion of the previously invented plants for the treatment of different human and livestock disease are valuable for providing an additional complete understanding into the indigenous plants use practices by this ethic groups in South Africa. The indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants use practices of this ethnic group is widespread comprising a variety of indigenous, exotic, wild, and cultivated plants. The indigenous people and traditional healers cultivate and gather a diversity of plants from the own garden, and from the wild and deciduous woodlands representing an all-embracing knowledge base conceivably imitating the sociocultural perspective of comparative separation and long-term settlement of the Vhavenda in the area. The domination of native plant diversity signified in ethnobotanical survey proposes that plant knowledge acclimatization may initiate with common and readily existing plants; conversely, the new popularity of nonnative plant diversity also reveals a form of adaptation to new acquired plant variety that has become integrated into the Vhavenda depository of valuable plant diversity. Native practices and organizations are also inserted in traditional settings and coded in cosmologies and belief systems that have safeguarded the sustainable utilization of plant biodiversity. Plant managing plans aim is to sustain consistent and continual supply of plant biodiversity for dietary purposes, medicinal use practices, and other uses through selective practices such as the prohibition of endangered and rare plants from use, the advertisement of sustainable collecting practices, and the proliferation of plant biodiversity [55].

A study review on medicinal plant use practices in Ethiopia showed that the country is rich in biodiversity and believed to have about 6000 higher plants diversity with about 10% of native higher plant species. This amount of biodiversity of plants species also includes most of the lower plant species. The genetic variety enclosed in the many biotic makeup is also great, consequently making the country a serious biodiversity homeland for plants. As one of the 12 Vavilovian midpoints of origin for home grown crops and their wild relatives, it is the country of various native crops and genetic stocks. Ethiopia is considered as the richest country in biodiversity since 5000 years ago when ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used it as a basis of exclusive merchandises like Frankincense, Myrrh, and other plant products, which are also used for the production of different drugs. Among the largest biodiversity of plant species found in Ethiopia, highest percent has medicinal purposes. With similar fashion with the rest of the world, most of the people of Ethiopia rely on medicinal plants for the treatment of human and livestock ailments. Accordingly, about 95% of traditional therapeutic synthesis are the products of plant source. It is not ambitious to say medicinal plants have been used as a basis for the traditional remedies in order to prevent and treat different human and livestock diseases in Ethiopia. Medicine preparation from the medicinal plants is an essential part of the tradition of Ethiopian people. Most Ethiopian indigenous healing knowledge is retained in stringent mystery; conversely, it is dynamic in that the traditional healers create every struggle to broaden their range by reciprocal transferring of traditional medicinal knowledge to each generations or by reading the traditional pharmacopeias. It is difficult to acquire indigenous healing information of the traditional practitioners for the reason that they claim that the knowledge is their own and only like to transfer their knowledge to their relatives, especially to the eldest son [56].

Traditional practitioners in Ethiopia use the medicinal plant existing in the biodiversity for the prevention and treatments of various human and livestock ailments. A study showed that around 800 plants diversity which is medicinally important in Ethiopia is used for treating around 300 diseases. As stated by several researchers, there are diverse kinds of plant diversity with their parts used for the treatment purposes, the place where they grow, and the type of conditions treated by using these medicinal plants. There are about 18 medicinal plant diversity with 63 genera, and they are used by the indigenous society for the prevention and treatment of different human diseases. According to the literature, the common medicinal plants used for the prevention and treatments of human conditions are Aloe species, Eucalyptus globulus, Hagenia abyssinica, Cupressus macrocarpa, Buddleja polystachya, Acmella caulirhiza, Acacia species, Citrus species, Clematis species, Coffee Arabica, Croton macrostachyus, Euphorbia species, Ficus sycomorus, and Moringa stenopetala. According to other reviews, all plant life forms were not in the same way used as therapies, for the reason that there is the dissimilarity in the distribution among the life forms. Therefore, the growth forms of medicinal plants were trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers, and others. The most predominant plant parts used for the prevention and treatments of different human and livestock ailments are herbs, followed by shrubs and trees [57].

A study conducted on ethnobotanical assessment and physicochemical properties of Commonly Used Medicinal Plants in Southwest Ethiopia showed that a total of 72 plants species were stated by the respondents for the treatment of different human and livestock ailments and classified under 61 genera and 39 families. Herbs constituted the predominant plant growth parts followed by shrubs, tree, and climbers. Leaves were the most frequently used medicinal plant parts by the traditional healers in the study followed by roots and seeds. Regarding the method of preparation of the medicinal plants, crushing, powdering, pounding, and pressing were used sequentially by the traditional healers [58].

6. Conservation of medicinal plants

Conservation of medicinal plants should have an objective of conserving biodiversity within specified place like by preparing botanical garden to confirm that all the plant species will be ready to use by the future generations [59]. Sustainable managing of indigenous medicinal plant diversity is very significant not only for the reason that their potential benefit as lead compound for new drug discoveries but also because of the large percent of people around the world still depends on traditional medicinal plants [60]. There is certain protection activities that have been carried out everywhere in the globe intended to keep endangered medicinal plants from additional harm [61]. This includes in situ and ex situ protection actions. Both in situ and ex situ protection efforts are applied to protect medicinal plant genetic biodiversity. In situ conservation is the protection of plant biodiversity in their natural territories. Certain indigenous medicinal plants have to be well kept in situ because of the difficulty for domestication and managing [62]. Medicinal plants can also be protected by confirming and inspiring their growth in different spaces, as they have been used traditionally [62]. This can be promising in the place of churches, mosques, graveyards, farm margin, river bank, and so on. An interpretation that has been made by the researcher showed that medicinal plant diversity grown around the religious sites is prohibited from collecting [60]. The second one is ex-situ conservations means conservation outside their natural habitats. This comprises gen bank, herbal gardens, and others. As it was stated, home gardens have an abundant influence for the protection of medicinal plant species in broad, and at the same time the biodiversity can also be well kept; thus, home gardens are strategic and best agricultural systems for the protection, production, and development of species that are medicinally important [62, 63]. Various efforts have been made to safeguard and encourage sustainable use of plants that are medicinally important in different country. In the field, biodiversity protection goes alongside with the protection of ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological information. Ethnobotanical investigation can point out managing difficulties of biodiversity through interviews and market studies; moreover, it provides resolutions by encouraging indigenous knowledge and customs that had protection advantages [64, 65]. A study reported that the wise utilization of species that are medicinally useful wants the participation of diverse sectors and larger community support and for this, awareness formation is suggested [66].

7. Conclusion

Ethnobotany is a life science which studies the interaction between human beings and flora in particular and broadly deals with the investigations, observations, and identifications of botanical diversity used for the prevention and treatment of human and livestock ailments. It also studies about the indigenous people knowledge, beliefs, and practices (i.e. it may be cultural and religious practices) related with medicinal plants. Also, it includes how human beings categorize, isolate, and associate floras beside with joint relationships of floras and human beings. The ethnobotanists should have to discuss with native community to share their routine life and to respect their cultures in order to obtain valuable information about the plants used for the medicinal purpose. Ethnobotany might be considered as a particular subdivision of ethnobiology. Ethnobotanists use different methods and materials for their ethnobotanical studies including ancient writings, surveys, discussions with key informants, and field investigations of the relationship between the plants and human beings. They typically work together with native people or traditional healers who have knowledge about the plants to record the indigenous biodiversity including plants and also for the identification of botanical diversity, parts used for the treatment of human and livestock diseases, and method of preparations and applications.

Ethnobotanists somewhat frequently categorize themselves more and more as ethnobiologists or ethnoecologists for the reason that these fields bargain more prospects to evaluate the relationship between the people and the whole surroundings in addition to the societies’ interaction with the external environment including the effect of global trade on domestic economy and individual life. Since 1992, the interaction of human beings with plants has created a new term known as “applied ethnobotany” which in fact relates to studies and approaches which allow to work together with the indigenous people and traditional practitioners in an actual way, to investigate the knowledge of native people and develop better management structures which shape specific use practices and social dynamics. Applied ethnobotanies also make every effort to fill the gap between indigenous knowledge and modern practice and to recognize the association between indigenous practices and knowledge schemes and procedures, and directions and financial fashions at the nationwide and worldwide level. In recent times, the term ethnoecology has been invented. Martine defines ethnoecology as a discipline which integrates many diverse academic fields. The term ethnoecology is used to incorporate all fields which designate the relationship between indigenous people and the ecosystem, including subdisciplines such as ethnobiology, ethnobotany, ethnoentomology, and ethnozoology. In fact, ethnoecology is the discipline of how individuals comprehend the interaction between human beings and the living things including animals, plants, and physical elements of a place.

Human being has been consuming floras meanwhile beforehand documented history. Our most primitive ancestors collected floras for foodstuff, medication, fibers, and construction supplies, momentary on their knowledge through oral customs. Farming, the exercise of generating yields and rising livestock, came about autonomously in diverse areas of the universe 10,000–15,000 years ago. Plant knowledge was an unlimited benefit in ancient societies, as it conversed a bigger opportunities of survival. Many ancient researchers took an extreme concern in botany, publishing herbals that enclosed plant information, and in addition also contained botanical importance. By using this baseline, an individual can identify and collect medicinal plants from the traditional healers own garden or from the forest and also can easily understand the method of preparations and applications. The term ethnobotany did not coin out as a discipline during the ancient civilization until earlier modern period. Despite the fact that individuals historically had a nearby relationship with the plants and various intellectuals investigated botany, rare scholars investigated the plant knowledge of an ethnic group till the twentieth century. The following are the rare leading ethnobotanical researchers and texts that aided disperse botanical knowledge all the way through the ages.

Even though many new chemical constituents have been derived and identified from medicinal plants used by the multicultural ethnic group, there are no conventional drugs synthesized from these plants using ethnobotanical knowledge and regulated as pharmaceutical products in the United States in at least in the past 40 years. This may look like astonishing, considering the amount of resources and materials invested during the investigation of ethnobotanical knowledge for the past 40 years. On the other hand, indigenous knowledge about the medicinal plant is still used by the scholars and researchers for the identification of new chemical constituents and structures that can be used as the main points for the development of new chemicals that have biological activity. Nowadays, the jobs for scholars and researchers have become more difficult than the past. They did not focus on finding new cultures, rather they focused on previously invented more than 4000 cultures and knowledge. An essential problem challenged by researchers on medicinal plant is that the study on medicinal plant may not all the time result in perfect separation of mechanisms of action, rather they only show “in-vitro pharmacological activity” or “in-vivo pharmacological activity on different organ” or “identification chemical constituents and suggesting that it may have such activity due to the presence of this functional groups,” etc. A close relationship between ethnobotanists who conduct research for the assessment of medicinal plant use practices by the indigenous people and traditional healers and experimental pharmacologists who conduct study on the pharmacological activity of traditional medicinal plants claimed by the traditional healers is very important in order to add values on present health care system by discovering novel drugs from the natural products and plants. On the assumption that there is a necessity for original, cautious, systematic, and cooperative records of the relationship of human beings with plant nature, for joining societal and environmental systems, for sustaining and improving biodiversity, and for recoupling health and well-being with traditional and ecological integrity, ethnobotany will be a discipline of significance and prominence in the globe.