Plants with benefits: Ethnomedicinal plants used by the Talaandig tribe in Portulin, Pangantucan, Bukidnon, Philippines

Abstract

With respect to the diversity of many plant taxa the Philippines is one of the world’s most species-rich countries. However, the use of plants by indigenous people in the archipelago has been underreported. Nowadays, indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants is increasingly declining and as more plants are lost and so is the awareness of their importance to humanity. Ethnobotanical studies are therefore important to explore these diverse biological tools for medicinal purposes. The purpose of this study was to record the traditional knowledge of the Talaandig tribe in Portulin, Pangantucan, Bukidnon, Philippines, with regard to the usage of medicinal plants to cure human illnesses and diseases.
A total of 19 respondents including 8 men and 11 women were selected through semi-structured interviews and group discussions to gather ethnobotanical information by means of a stratified purposive sampling system and they were evaluated by descriptive statistics, use value (UV) and ranking methods. In total, 97 medicinal plants belonging to 46 families and 86 genera were recorded. The most numerous plant species were Poaceae (7 species), followed by Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Lamiaceae (6 species each). The dominant growth habit was herbs (40%), followed by trees (27%) with leaves (41%) as the most frequently used plant part which are commonly prepared as a decoction (45%), with internal (65%) as the main route of administration. Most of the documented ethnomedicinal plants were used to treat diseases of the respiratory system (16%), followed by diseases of the circulatory system (13%). Vitex negundo (0.7895) was considered as the most important medicinal plant in the community, followed by Psidium guajava (0.7368). This ethnobotanical study shows that many plant species play an important role in local healing practices and that in the Talaandig tribe of Portulin, Pangantucan, Bukidnon, knowledge of traditional medicine is still used and plays a significant role.