A study of medicinal plant ethnobotany, utilization and conservation within a gender context has been carried out. Fieldwork ( an ethnobotanical survey and a tree population survey) was undertaken in the Urumwa Forest Reserve, Tabora Region, western Tanzania, and in local communities around the reserve. Plant material from two important medicinal tree species was collected from Urumwa and investigated in Bangor, UK, for phytochemical content.
The ethnobotanical survey involved 62 male and 53 female respondents who
completed questionnaires and a complementary PRA exercise (36 key informants).
Communities around Urumwa are indicated to be highly knowledgeable about
medicinal plants including general awareness by both genders of plants useful
medicinally for gastro-intestinal and urino-genital disorders. Men and women around Urumwa, nevertheless, utilize and conserve medicinal plant resources differently. In utilization; men are active traditional practitioners, traders and are specialized in treating a variety of diseases and conditions. In conservation, women are the active domesticators of plants around homesteads compared with men who are harvesters, and decision-makers in aspects regarding protection of the reserve and its resources.
Traditional cultures and socio-economic aspects (e.g. taboos and income generation) seem to influence the observed gender role differences at Urumwa. For the majority of medicinal plant users however, there is lack of standardized dosages. In general, the medicinal plant resources of the miombo ofUrumwa are sparsely distributed.
The tree population survey involved two species (Pterocarpus tinctorius and
Strychnos spinosa) indicated as priority species by the ethnobotanical work, belonging to genera known as sources of bioactive phytochemicals. The status of each was assessed in the field and showed that Pterocarpus tinctorius has many large individual trees (>25 cm dbh) but few small ones, while Strychnos spinosa is well stocked in terms of small individuals ( The laboratory work used high performance liquid chromatography techniques and confirmed the presence of five isoflavonoids (formononetin, genistein,
homopterocarpin, prunetin and vestitol) in the leaves and stem bark and root bark of Pterocarpus tinctorius, and the presence of two monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (strychnine and brucine) in the stem bark and root bark of Strychnos spinosa. In both species the compounds are in low concentrations ( < 50 ppm for isoflavonoids; < 1 ppm for indole alkaloids).
Because it combines ethnobotanic, conservation and phytochemical aspects, this study represents a new breadth of integration in the exploration of the role of medicinal plants in primary health care in an area of Tanzania. The advantages of the approach as a basis more enlightened future management and use of local medicinal plants are discussed.