Survey of medicinal plant species utilization in home gardens in Jema’a local government area, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

Survey of plant species planted in home gardens and their medicinal uses was carried out in Jema’ LGA, Kaduna State. Three political zones are: Gwong, Godogodo and Jema’a Central were purposively chosen for the study. Thirty respondents from 30 households with home gardens were purposively selected and visited in each zone; making a total of 90 respondents interviewed. Selection of respondents was based on the presence of home garden and willingness to participate in the study. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Frequency of Citation (FC), Cultural Importance Index (CII) of Informant and Consensus Factor (Fic) of plant species were determined. Results showed that respondents were more of males (61.1%) than females (38.9%). A total of 57 plant species belonging to 34 families were found in home garden while plant 41 species belonging to 28 families were identified as medicinal plants with Rutaceae as the most utilized family. Azadirachta indica had the highest FC of 28(31.1%) followed by Moringa oleifera 26(28.9%), Mangifera indica 25(27.8%), Persea americana 22(24.4%), Carica papaya 20(22.2%), Eucalyptus calmadulensis 15(16.7%) and Khaya senegalensis 14(15.6%), respectively. Home garden practices should be encouraged by government as part of greening the human environment, follow-up tests should be administered to patients treated with herbal medicine and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of most utilized medicinal plants in home gardens should be done to ascertain the exact bioactive properties they possess.