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3.1 INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 3
ETHNOBOTANY
Ethnobotany is the use of plants and their properties, including medicinal properties,
in relation to a culture or a group of people. Its importance lies in the fact that, in
addition to contributing to knowledge and conservation of ancestral popular culture, it
opens up the possibility of finding new uses for medicinal plants and can serve to
discover new medicines derived from plants (Akerreta et al., 2007). According to
Veilleux and King (1996), the earliest recorded uses of plants for medicinal purposes
were found in Babylon in 1770 BC and in ancient Egypt in 1550 BC. The ancient
Egyptians believed medicinal plants to have utility in the afterlife of their pharaohs;
these plants have been recorded from the time of the Giza pyramids.
In Philadelphia in 1895, Dr John Harshberger described his field of study in one of
his lectures as ethnobotany, which marked the origin of the term. This field of study
was described as the study of plants used by primitive and aboriginal people
(Robbins et al., 1916).
Robbins (1916) used a more scientific approach which investigated the following
questions:
• What are the primitive ideas and conceptions of plant life?
• What are the effects of a given plant environment on the lives, customs,
religion, thoughts and everyday practical affairs of the people studied?
• What use do they make of the plants around them for food, medicine, material
culture and ceremonial purposes?
• What is the extent of their knowledge of the parts, functions and activities of
plants?
• Into which categories are plant names and words that deal with plants
grouped in the language of the people studied; and what can be learned
concerning the working of the folk mind by the study of these names?
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