1 / 18

ETHNODIAGNOSTIC SKILLS OF THE DIGO COMMUNITY FOR MALARIA: A LEAD TO TRADITIONAL BIOPROSPECTING?

Explore the traditional knowledge and skills of the Digo community in diagnosing and treating malaria, offering insights into ethnophytotherapeutic remedies. This study highlights the abundant ethnodiagnostic skills and practices employed by the Digo community, shedding light on their traditional bioprospecting techniques.

chiquitae
Download Presentation

ETHNODIAGNOSTIC SKILLS OF THE DIGO COMMUNITY FOR MALARIA: A LEAD TO TRADITIONAL BIOPROSPECTING?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. ETHNODIAGNOSTIC SKILLS OF THE DIGO COMMUNITY FOR MALARIA: A LEAD TO TRADITIONAL BIOPROSPECTING? Joseph M Nguta, Natural Product programme, PHPT UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

  2. General overview Azadirachta indica form part of the vegetation

  3. Author conducting an interview in Mwaroni village, Diani

  4. General overview Palm trees form part of the vegetation

  5. Introduction • Digo community is the most populous group in Msambweni district of Coast Province and is mainly concentrated in Diani location • Malaria is endemic in Msambweni district and prevalent in many other communities in Kenya • The Digo community has abundant traditional knowledge on malaria recognition, control and treatment

  6. Introd.(Cont.) • This study documents ethnophytotherapeutic remedies, ethnodiagnostic skills and related traditional knowledge utilized by the Digo community of the Kenyan Coast to diagnose malaria as a lead to traditional bioprospecting.

  7. Methods Study site

  8. Methods(Cont.) • This study was carried out in three Digo villages of Diani sub-location between May 2009 and December 2009 • Data was obtained through the use of semi-structured questionnaires, field observations and Participatory Rural Appraisal tools

  9. Methods (Cont.) • A total of 60 Digo respondents (34 men and 26 women) provided information on ethnophytotherapeutic remedies, ethnodiagnostic skills and related traditional knowledge utilized by the Digo community of the Kenyan Coast to diagnose malaria as a lead to traditional bioprospecting.

  10. Results • The results show that the Digo community relies not only on symptoms of malaria but also on factors responsible for causing malaria, attributes favoring the breeding of mosquitoes and practices employed to guard against mosquito bites or to protect households against malaria to diagnose the disease

  11. Results(Cont.) • The Digo community uses 50 medicinal plants to treat malaria that is positively diagnosed. • The most frequently mentioned symptoms were fever, joint pains and vomiting while the most frequently mentioned practices employed to guard against mosquito bites and/or to protect households against malaria was burning of herbal plants such as Ocimum suave and ingestion of herbal decoctions and concoctions

  12. Conclusions • Malaria is a major obstacle to social-economic development amongst the Digo community. • The Digo community has abundant ethnodiagnostic skills for malaria which forms the basis of their traditional bioprospecting techniques • They also have abundant traditional knowledge about malaria causes and ethnophytotherapeutic remedies

  13. Conclusions (Cont.) • The results of this study become a basis for selection of plants for further pharmacological, toxicological and phytochemical studies in developing new and locally relevant antimalarial drugs.

  14. Author conducting interview

  15. Thickets near homesteads

  16. Acknowledgements • The Carnegie Corporation of New York for financially supporting this work through Regional Initiative in Science and Technology (Carnegie-AIS-RISE) Natural Product Network • The community of Msambweni district, for sharing their knowledge and time with the author • The Natural Product Research Team for their positive criticism and constant encouragement

  17. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING/AHSANTENI SANA

  18. KAYA DIANI FOREST KAYA DIANI FOREST

More Related