Journal of Applied Biosciences 210: 22203 – 22211
ISSN 1997-5902
Ethnobotanical study of plants used against asthma in traditional medicine of Biankouma, Western Côte d’Ivoire
Ta Bi Irié Honoré1*, Ouattara Aboubacar 2, Doh Koffi Stéphane 2 , N’guessan Koffi 3
1UFR Agronomic, Forestry and Environmental Engineering (IAFE), University of Man, PO Box 20 Man, Côte d’Ivoire
2UFR Medical sciences, Alassane Ouattara University, 01 PO Box 18 Bouaké 01, Côte d’Ivoire
3UFR Biosciences, Félix Houphouet-Boigny University, 22 PO Box 582 abidjan 22, Côte d’Ivoire
*Corresponding author: e-mail: honoretabi@gmail.com
Submitted 12/05/2025, Published online on 31/07/2025 in the https://www.m.elewa.org/journals/journal-of-applied-biosciences https://doi.org/10.35759/JABs.210.3
ABSTRACT
Objective: The study is a contribution to the search for remedies based on local plants to combat asthma, a public health problem in Côte d’Ivoire.
Methodology and Results: The study was conducted in the town of Biankouma from March 3 to August 31, 2024, among traditional practitioners. 73 traditional practitioners were interviewed. The study inventoried 15 plants belonging to 10 botanical families with a dominance of Fabaceae. The most cited plant species were: Combretum indicum (Rangoon creeper) (FCs = 0.21), Cnestis ferruginea (Horn-of-plenty) (FCs = 0.20) and Nympheae lotus (White lotus) (FCs = 0.19). A phytochemical screening was carried out on aqueous extracts from these plants to search for the scientific basis of their anti-asthmatic properties. These tests indicated the presence of sterols, polyterpenes, polyphenols, flavonoids, alkaloids and saponins.
Conclusion and application of Results: This study shows that traditional practitioners of Biankouma offer recipes for asthma. The chemical groups revealed by phytochemical screening could justify the empirical use of these plant species against asthma. This result is a significant aid in the fight against the disease in Côte d’Ivoire. However, there is not often pharmacological test to confirm their propositions of traditional medicine. To overcome this difficulty, the results of this study, once published, will be made available to the Ministry of Health of Côte d’Ivoire with the agreement of interviewees to encourage strong collaboration between modern medicine and traditional medicine in the fight against asthma.
Keywords: Asthma, ethnobotany, phytomedicines, Biankouma, Côte d’Ivoire
INTRODUCTION
Since the beginning of humanity, man has used plants (Ta et al., 2023). This is explained by the use of these plants in various areas of life, such as housing, food and health (N’guessan, 2008). The relationship between man and plants has led to the emergence of several sciences: ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, ethnopharmacology. Ethnopharmacology is defined as the interdisciplinary scientific study of all materials of plant, animal or mineral origin and the knowledge or practices related to them, which vernacular cultures implement to modify the states of living organisms for therapeutic, curative, preventive or diagnostic purposes (Fleurentin, 2012). It is therefore under other names traditional medicine which is based on the empirical use of plants. Today, the use of plants for health is widespread not only in developing countries but also in developed societies (Doh et al., 2023). Like other countries, Ivorian traditional medicine offers remedies for all human pathologies whether or not they are curable for modern medicine. The conditions treated are diverse: diabetes, high blood pressure and especially asthma, the subject of this study. Asthma is a chronic lung disease that affects people of all ages. It is caused by inflammation and contraction of the muscles around the airways, making breathing difficult (WHO, 2024). In Côte d’Ivoire, the prevalence of asthma increased from 8% in 1988 to 15% in 2000 (Aké, 2015). Today, the disease is the cause of 20% of hospitalizations according to Ivorian health authorities. In the Biankouma hospitals, the site of this study, asthma is the third leading cause of consultation after malaria and tuberculosis. Faced with this worrying health situation, the use of plants becomes an appropriate solution. This study is part of this perspective. It is therefore a contribution to the search for plants with anti-asthmatic properties. It lists the plants with anti-asthmatic potential proposed by traditional practitioners of Biankouma and seeks the scientific basis for the use of these plants through phytochemical screening.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
Presentation of the study environment: Biankouma is a city in the west of Ivory Coast. It is located 700 km from the city of Abidjan (economic capital of the country) with the geographical coordinates of 7°44’00’’N latitude and 7°37’00’’W longitude (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Location of Biankouma in Côte d’Ivoire and Africa
Material
Biological material: It includes all the plants and plant organs encountered among traditional practitioners.
Technical material used: It consists of a survey sheet containing the questionnaires, a pruning shears for collecting plant samples, plastic bags and old newspapers for storing samples. A digital camera and laptop for images, data entry and analysis. Classic kitchen equipment was necessary to obtain plant decoctions. an oven at 40°C to obtain dry extracts from the decoction, An electric scale was used to weigh, a water bath at 37°C and a water heater.
Chemicals: Phytochemical screening required the use of several reagents corresponding to the different chemical groups: Stiasny’s reagent, Bornstraёgen’s reagent, Burchard and Dragendorff’s reagents, sodium acetate, sodium acetate, ferric chloride and various other chemicals.
Study methods
Ethnomedical investigations: They took place from March 3 to August 31, 2024, among traditional practitioners in Biankouma. A total of 73 people recognized as traditional healers by the city hall were interviewed based on a questionnaire relating to the plants involved in the treatment of asthma. The survey questionnaire relates to the plants and plant organs used in the treatment of the disease, the preparation techniques and the method of administration of medicinal recipes.
Plant identification: A survey was carried out in several ecological environments to find and collect samples of plants indicated by traditional practitioners. All the samples collected were identified by the systematists of the University of Man in Côte d’Ivoire.
Frequency of citation for plant species (FCs): It refers to the ratio between the number of respondents who mentioned the species and the total number of people interviewed during the survey. The mathematical formula for the FCs is established as follows (Sidio and N’guessan, 2019):
The most cited plant species were subjected to tri-phytochemical tests. They are: Combretum indicum, Cnestis ferruginea and Nympheae lotus (Figure 2).
| A |
| B |
| C |
| A : Combretum indicum B : Cnestis ferruginea C : Nymphaea lotus |
Figure 2: Plant species used for phytochemical screening
Preparation of aqueous extracts: The extracts were obtained from the decoction of these three plant species. A decoction of the leaves of C. indicum, C. ferruginea and N. lotus. To obtain the decoctions was made , following a classic method (Aké-Assi E et al., 2023). For each plant, 500g of fresh material were boiled in 1.5L of water for 30 min in a cooking pot whose capacity is 2 liters. The decoction obtained (600 ml) was filtered to obtain 400 ml. This volume of filtrate was concentrated to 25 ml on a sand bath to obtain the dry extract of each plant.
Phytochemical screening: Concerning the phytochemical screening, these chemical groups sought are Alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins, Polyphenols Sterols and polyterpenes, Quinonic substances. They were highlighted using corresponding reagents in aqueous plant extracts according to the methods of Bouquet and Wagner (Bouquet, 1972; Wagner and Bladts, 2001).
Statistical analysis of data: The statistical analysis concerned the FCs values. It allowed to make a hierarchical classification through a dendrogram. To construct the dendrogram, the plants were coded by considering the first three letters of the genus and the first two letters of the species (Aké et al., 2019).
RESULTS
Inventoried plants and therapeutic uses : The survey on anti-asthmatic plants allowed to inventory 15 plants belonging to 10 families with a predominance of Fabaceae with 26.66% (Table 1). The parts of the plants used were: leaves (66.66%), leafy stems (13.33%) and whole plants (13.33%). These plant organs were prepared by decoction (72.97%), kneading (13.51%), trituration (8.10%) and maceration (3.33%) (Figure 3). The medicinal recipes were administered as a drink (58.82%), as a body bath (17.64%) and by nasal infusion in 27.77% of cases.
Table 1: Inventoried plants and medicinal characteristics
| Plant species | Botanical families | Organs used | Techniques
of preparation |
Administration modes |
| Abrus camescens | Fabaceae | Leaves | Maceration | Body bath |
| Alstonia boonei | apocynaceae | Leafy stem | Decoction | Drink |
| Cassia occidentalis | Fabaceae | Leafy stem | Decoction | Drink |
| Centrosema virginianum | Fabaceae | Whole plant | Decoction | Drink |
| Clausena lansium | Rutaceae | Leaves | Maceration | Drink |
| Cnestis ferruginea | Connaraceae | Leaves | Decoction
Trituration |
Drink |
| Combretum indicum | Combretaceae | Leaves | Decoction | Drink |
| Cyperus erectus | Cyperaceae | Whole plant | Decoction
Kneading |
Drink
Nasal infusion |
| Desmodium adscendens | Fabaceae | Leaves | Decoction | Drink |
| Dimocarpus longand | Sapindaceae | Leaves | Decoction | Body bath |
| Euphorbia hirta | Euphorbiaceae | Leaves | Decoction
Kneading |
Nasal infusion
Nasal infusion |
| Nymphaea lotus | Nymphaeaceae | Leaves | decoction | Drink |
| Ocimum gratissimum | Lamiaceae | Leaves | Trituration | Nasal infusion |
| Phyllantus amarus | Euphorbiaceae | Leaves | Decoction | Drink |
| Tabernaemontana pachysiphon | Apocynaceae | Leaves | Maceration | Nasal infusion |
Figure 3: Technique of preparation of medicinal recipes
Frequency of citation for plant species (FCs): Concerning FCs values, they are represented by a dendrogram of 3 groups at a cluster distance of 3 (Figure 4). The group 1 is composed of C. indicum (0.21), C. ferruginea (0.20) and N. lotus (0.19). These plants were the most used against asthma in the traditional pharmacopoeia of Biankouma. The second group is made up of 5 plants moderately cited during the survey: Dimocarpus longand, Phyllantus amarus, Centrosema virginianum, Cyperus erectus and Cassia occidentalis. The nine other plants forming group 3 were rarely mentioned by our interviewees.
Figure 4: Dendrogram of hierarchical classification of inventoried plant species according to FCs
Phytochemical screening : The results of the phytochemical screening are recorded in Table 2. Polyphenols, sterols and polyterpenes were present in the extracts of the 3 plants in average proportions. Flavonoids were present in the 3 plant extracts with an abundance in C. ferruginea. Concerning tannins, they were found only in the extracts of C. ferruginea and N. lotus. Only the extracts of C. indicum contained tannins. The three plant extracts contained alkaloids and saponins with an abundance of alkaloids (Burchard) in N. lotus extract.
Table 2: Phytochemical screening results
| Chemical groups | Extract Cnestis ferruginea | Extract Combretum
indicum |
Extract Nymphaea lotus | |
| Sterols and polyterpens | + | + | + | |
| Polyphenols | + | + | + | |
| Flavonoids | ++ | + | + | |
|
Tannins |
Gallics | + | – | + |
| Catechics | – | –
|
– | |
| Quinonic substances | – | + | – | |
|
Alkaloids |
Dragendorff | + | – | + |
| Burchard | + | + | ++ | |
| Saponosides | + | + | + | |
++: Abundant chemical group ; +: Chemical group in average quantity; -: Chemical group not present
DISCUSSION
Inventoried plants and therapeutic uses : The study identified 15 plant species used in the traditional treatment of asthma in Biankouma. These plants belong to 10 families with a high representation of Fabaceae. This family of plants is regularly dominant in ethnobotanical inventories in the forest zone of Côte d’Ivoire (Ambé et al., 2015). The most used plant organs in the preparation of medicinal recipes were leaves (66.66%). This result is like those of the first authors who investigated the traditional treatment of asthma in Côte d’Ivoire (N’guessan et al., 2009). The high use of leaves in medicinal recipes could be explained by the accessibility of these organs (Béné et al., 2016). Decoction was the most used preparation technique. This is a recurring result in similar studies. Many authors have already shown that decoction is the most requested preparation method in traditional medicinal recipes (Soro et al., 2015) . Also, the decoction collects the most active ingredient and reduces the toxicity of certain plants (Irié-nguessan et al., 2011). In relation to the list of plants, two plants have been exposed in the Ivorian literature as anti-asthmatic plants: Cassia occidentalis and Desmodium adscendens (Aké-Assi L et al., 2011). However, C. indicum, C. ferruginea and N. lotus, the plants highly cited in the treatment of asthma in this study is a result of the Biankouma pharmacopoeia. This result is specific to this study.
Phytochemical screening :Regarding phytochemical results, the three plant species analyzed contained sterols, polyterpenes, flavonoids, alkaloids and saponins. The anti-asthmatic activity of these chemical groups has been proven in the study relating to Asthpadose, a phytomedicine already used by Ivorians against asthma (Ta, 2017). Furthermore, asthma is sometimes caused by bacterial infections, polyphenols and flavonoids are proven antibiotics (Kouadio et al., 2023). Their antibacterial properties could significantly relieve asthmatics.
CONCLUSION AND APPLICATION OF RESULTS
This study is a contribution to the search for effective phytomedicines against asthma. It allowed us to interview 73 people and identify 15 plants belonging to 10 botanical families with a dominance of Fabaceae. The leaves, leafy stems and whole plants were the parts of the plants used in the treatment of asthma. These plant organs were mainly prepared by decoction which is administered as a drink. C. indicum, C. ferruginea and N. lotus were the plant species most used by traditional practitioners of Biankouma against the disease. The anti-asthmatic activity of these plant species could be explained by the presence of some chemical groups such as sterols, polyterpenes, flavonoids, alkaloids and saponins because they are sometimes bronchodilators that make breathing easy. The traditional use of these plants could effectively slow the spread of asthma in the city of Biankouma. However, more in-depth pharmacological tests are needed to consolidate our results. The results of this study will therefore be made available to the Ministry of Health of Côte d’Ivoire with the agreement of interviewees to encourage strong collaboration between modern medicine and traditional medicine in the fight against asthma.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding this study.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The botanical identification of the plants inventoried, and the phytochemical screening performed in this work, have been realized at the University of Man. The authors are thankful to all the authorities of the University and its researchers who have participated in these steps of the work.
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