Abstract

Hypertension and diabetes are major chronic diseases increasingly affecting populations in sub-Saharan Africa, where the limited financial resources and the high cost of conventional treatments lead many patients to rely on traditional medicine. This study assessed medicinal plants used in the management of these diseases in the district of Bamako, Mali. An ethnobotanical survey was conducted from May 2021 to January 2022 among 153 herbalists selected across the 10 communes of Bamako. Quantitative diversity indices, citation frequencies, plant parts used, and preparation methods were evaluated. A total of 59 species belonging to 31 families were registered from the interviewed people. The most frequently cited were Sclerocarya birrea (15.61%), Moringa oleifera (9.54%), and Ziziphus mauritiana (9.54%). Thirty-eight species were used specifically for diabetes, 35 for hypertension, and 26 for both conditions. The leaves (44.13%) and bark (25.40%) were the most employed plant parts, and the decoction was the predominant preparation method (58.96%). All the recipes were administered by oral route. These results highlight the strong reliance of Bamako’s population on medicinal plants for chronic disease management and underscore the need for phytochemical, pharmacological and toxicity studies to validate their efficacy and safety.

Key words: Ethnobotany, herbal medicine, diabetes, arterial hypertension, Bamako.