Knowledge and self-reported practice of the local inhabitants on traditional insect repellent plants in Western Hararghe zone, Ethiopia

Ethnopharmacological relevance: This paper reveals the trend of knowledge and self-reported practice of traditional insect repellent plants (TIRPs) and could serve as a baseline data to identify/formulate novel plant-based insect repellents in the near future. Aim of the study: Insect repellent plants usage is a long-standing and age old tradition. Thus, the major objective of this survey was to assess the knowledge and self-reported practice of the local inhabitants on TIRPs in Western Hararghe zone, Ethiopia. Materials and methods: The ethnobotanical survey was conducted between January and March 2011 via administering pre-tested questionnaire by involving the selected 150 household members in the study area. Results: The survey results clearly reveal that nearly 92.1% [90.1% (99/110) of female and 97.5% (39/40) of male] of the respondents have had adequate awareness on TIRPs. Leaves were the most widely applied plant parts and burning/smoldering the plant materials in order to generate smoke was the most common practice. Chi-square statistical analysis shows that there was no significant difference observed in the knowledge of the repellent plants between the gender (P-value = 0.134), average monthly income (P-value = 0.529) and educational status (P-value = 0.107) but there was a significant association with the age (P-value = 0.012) of respondents. However, repellent plants usage custom is significantly associated with gender (P-value = 0.021) and educational status (P-value = 0.003) of the respondents but, there was such no significant relationship between the age (P-value = 0.312) average monthly income (P-value = 0.111) and repellent plants usage custom. Conclusion: Conducting more ethnobotanical survey on TIRPs is extremely important in order to generate and maintain the data-base. Besides, identifying the bio-active molecules, which are responsible for the repellent activity and eventually conducting laboratory and field based studies to evaluate their efficacy and safety are extremely imperative to formulate new classes of plant-based insect repellents/insecticides in the near future. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.