Ethnomedicinal plant species commonly used to manage arthritis in North-West Nigeria

Arthritis is one of the leading causes of disability among millions of people in Nigeria. The limitations in the use of conventional analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs for the management of arthritis include their exorbitant costs, adverse effects and inability to permanently resolve the cases hence the need for alternatives. Research on herbal remedies effective for the management of arthritis has grown in recent years in a bid to find leads for new bioactive compounds. This study was aimed at documenting and validating medicinal plant species used traditionally in North-West Nigeria for the management of arthritis. As a preliminary step in a series of proposed studies, semi-structured questionnaires were used to gather ethnobotanical and sociodemographic data from 112 traditional medicine practitioners in twenty-four local government areas across Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Katsina States. Information collected included the plant species and parts used, common/vernacular names of the plants, methods of preparation/administration and toxicity of the plant species. An extensive literature survey was thereafter done to check the veracity of the claims. A total of 30 plant species belonging to 18 plant families were documented. The leaves were the most commonly used plant part given as oral decoctions. Annona senegalensis and Boswellia dalziellii were the plant species with the highest relative frequency of citation. Approximately 66% of the listed plant species were found to have similar ethnomedicinal uses in some other African States and 85% have been reported to be pharmacologically active in the literature surveyed. Knowledge on the use of these plants were mainly communicated orally from generation to generation. Lack of proper documentation can lead to loss of the traditional medicinal knowledge and resources threatening the sustainability of rural healthcare systems. Integration of some of these plant species into orthodox medicine may produce better therapeutic effects in reducing disabilities and loss of income in impoverished African states.