Ethno-Pharmacological Survey of Therapeutic Plants Used in The Treatment of Paediatric Diseases in Two Local Governments in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Herbal therapy deals with the use of plant-based products for therapeutic purposes and is still a popular and effective treatment choice for a variety of illnesses. The study's objective was to conduct an ethno-pharmacological survey of common therapeutic plants used in managing diseases in infants and children in Abeokuta North and Yewa South Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Ogun State, Nigeria. The respondents to the study completed one hundred and twenty (120) well-structured questionnaires. The results from the survey showed that thirty-seven (37) therapeutic plants are used for the treatment of twelve (12) paediatric diseases (malaria, typhoid fever, abdominal pains, pile, measles, jaundice, anaemia, colds, skin rashes, cough, worm infestation and infantile seborrheic dermatitis). The therapeutic plant forms are majorly trees (42%) and shrubs (36%) while the plant parts used are largely leaves (60%), major methods of preparation are decoction (39%) and cooking (32%) using water as the chief solvent. A good percentage of the plants (46%) are used for the treatment of malaria (31%) and typhoid fever (15%) respectively. Myriads amount of the plants are mono- therapeutic while few are known as poly-therapeutic. A high percentage of the recorded therapeutic plants are used for treating malaria disease followed by typhoid fever. The dosage of the herbal remedy is not exact but largely with the use of medium size cup and discretional determination of little dose. Herbal therapy is still an important source of therapy in the LGAs and there is a need to correlate herbal therapy with scientific knowledge to obtain accurate dosage formulation and conduct toxicological examinations. Our study has therefore, contributed to the documentation of therapeutic plants used for treating paediatric diseases in the LGAs.