Cultural categorization of febrile illnesses in correlation with herbal remedies used for treatment in Southwestern Nigeria

Austral'!

The elhno;;,raphic study was conducted in IWI' communities in Oyo SI;Jle in Southwestern Nigeria. The study sites consisted of it rural .uu!

an urban local government area located in the rroplcnl rain forest zone of Nigeria. The study was designed to obtain information on febrile

illnesses alld herbal remedies 1'01 treatment with rhc aim of identifying potential antimalarial drugs. The study revealed that fever is a general

term for describing illnesses ussociatcd with elevated hody temperature. The indigenous Yoruba ethnic popul.u ion has categorized feverbused _

on symptoms and causes. The present communication is the result of focus group discussion and semi-structured questionnaire administered

to Iraliili(!.!tal healers, herb sellers. elders and mo;~er~. This was on types of fevers, symptoms and causes of febrile illncs-cs. T
I: investigation

also included use or traditional herbs in the prevention and treatment or the illnesses in the two communities.

A total "I':; 14 respondents were interviewed. ,I'hi~; was made up of 26() (51.8%) from Atiba local government area (LGA), an urban centre

while 248 (48.2%) respondents were interviewe.J {'HIm ltesiwaju LGA, a rural community. The LGAs are located in Oyo State of-Nigeria. "" "~'"

The respondents proffered 12 types of febrile illnesses in a multiple response answering system in Yoruba language. The most common ones

(direct translation into English) were: yellow fever (19.1 (rn), typhoid (34.8%), ordinary (28.8%), rain~ s~~son (20;8%) ald.h~a~a~!1.e,qQ;~o/9).

reyt:rs'J!!sreqively .•Per~eived causes qf~lc;:l:t9f, .!,)t;.J'ebrile illnesses included stress, mosquito bites, unclean water, rains and over exposure to

the sl1n~Ml'thods of fever prevention were mainly with the use of herbal decoctions, powdered herbs, orthodox medications and maintenance

or proper hygiene.

or a total or 112 different herbal remedies usc.t ill the treatment or the febrile illnesses compiled from the study. 2:; recipes ;II'C prC"cnled.

Recipes consisted 01'2-7 ingredients. Oral decoctions (84%). oral powders (63%). use as soaps and creams (40%) in a multiple response system,

were the moxt prevalent routes or -idministration of prepared herbs used in the treatment of the fevers. Boiling in water or alcohol was the most

cornmon mctbod used in the preparation ofthe remedies. The four most frequently mentioned (multiple response system) plants in theSolithwe~1

ethnohotany for fevers were Azadirachta indica {875%). Mangifem indica (75.0%), Morinda lucida (68.8%) and Citrus medica (6R.8%).

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