Traditional medicinal plants and practices of an Indigenous community in Katipunan Village, Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur, Philippines

Medicinal plants represent an alternative treatment for various diseases and their use is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. This study aimed to present preliminary data on the ethnomedicinal plants used by the Indigenous people of Barangay Katipunan, Bayugan City, Agusan Del Sur. Data were obtained through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. The benefits, importance, and coverage of ethnomedicine were expressed using several quantitative indices including the Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) and relative frequency of citations (RFC). Most respondents were male (68.18% of 44 respondents). Eighty ethnomedicinal plant species have been documented and are distributed across 38 families. For every species, the leaves (42%) were the most utilized for preparing ethnomedicines, whereas decoctions (37%) were the most popular plant preparation method. Trees constituted the largest proportion, comprising of 34 plant species (42%). The three most used ethnomedicinal plant species in the study area are Anodendron borneense (0.65), Blumea balsamifera (0.6), and Artemisia vulgaris (0.57). Cultivated plant species were the most common sources of medicinal plants, constituting 56.3% of the species found in their localities. Medicinal plants were preferred by 41 (93%) respondents, indicating that they used traditional medicine for their primary health treatment.

published by the  Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES)