Abstract

Human fungal infections remain a burden worldwide, due to resistance to existing antibiotics. Developing antifungal drugs from plant secondary metabolites is good because they are cheap, highly available and have less side effects. This study sought to identify and assess the potential of plants used against human fungal diseases in Buea, Southwest Region of Cameroon. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to participants in five villages. Identified plants were ranked and the top five most frequently cited screened for phytochemicals. Twenty-nine plant species belonging to 22 families were used to treat eight different human fungal diseases. The highest number (11) of plants was reported for the treatment of Eczema. The most represented family was Asteraceae with three species, followed by Arecaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Rutaceae and Zingiberaceae with two species each while the other families had one species each. The most used (60%) plant parts were leaves. Maceration was the most used method of preparation, while route of administration was mostly topical. The screening indicated the presence of alkaloids, steroids, tannins, cardiac glycosides, saponins and flavonoids in the different species, and in various proportions. Saponins were found in all the five plants, with Senna alata and Commelina benghalensis extracts having more than other species. Although the degree of presence varied with species and solvent, overall, S. alata had most of the bioactive compounds while Allium sativum recorded the least. The results of the study highlight the role of indigenous knowledge in the identification of plants used for primary healthcare and indicate that the documented plants have potential pharmaceutical properties that could be exploited for the manufacture of antifungal drugs, necessitating their wise exploitation and conservation.

Key words: Ethnobotanical study, phytochemical screening, plants, human fungal diseases, Buea.