Ethnobotanical Survey of Medicinal Plants Used by Hausa People in the Management of Diabetes Mellitus in Kano Metropolis, Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus known as ‘sugar disorder’ had become a euphemism among the urban Hausa tribal populace of Kano metropolis, Northern Nigeria as no one has ever been reported to have fully recovered from it. Because of the existing economic melt-down in the area, people resorted back to the use of medicinal drugs that are cheaper. An ethnobotanical survey was conducted with the aim of identifying the types of plants used in the management of diabetes in Kano. Self-structured questionnaires were administered among herbalists and individuals representing the consumer population. The results obtained revealed that 34 plant species from 23 families representing 29 genera of plants were used in the management of diabetes in Kano. Out of these, 21 species including Acacia nilotica, Allium cepa, Allium sativum, Guiera senegalensis, Manihot esculenta, Mangifera indica, Azadirachta indica, Syzygium guinensis, Ficus thonningii were found to be consistent with the numerous published work on medicinal plants used in the management of diabetes in various traditional systems elsewhere in the world. More so, 69% of the consumer population believed in the efficacy of traditional medicine over the conventional scientific ones while 61% of them viewed the high cost of the conventional drugs as the major reason why they resort back to the use of traditional medication. There is therefore the need for incorporating the traditional herbalists in the management of diabetes by orienting them through seminars and workshops on how to formulate standard doses for the treatment strategies so as to delay the complicated secondary signs of hypertension, hyper-and-hypoglycemia in the patients using the traditional drugs.