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Jedidah Nankaya
School of Biological Sciences, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

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Original paper
Published: 28 January 2021 in Biodiversity and Conservation
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Medicinal plants provide biodiversity-based ecosystem services including health to many communities around the world and therefore, medicinal plant conservation is vital for sustainability. Here, we identify medicinal plants to be prioritized for conservation among the Loita Maasai who are pastoralists in the extensive East African savannah. A botanical survey and interviews were conducted with 91 villagers; 49 women and 42 men drawn randomly from 45 households. A conservation priority list was developed based on (1) the plant part harvested, (2) the species use value, and (3) its availability. These criteria were evaluated independently for each species on a scale from 1 to 4 and their sum was taken as the species’ score. The score for the species varied from 5 to 9. The higher the total score value of a species, the higher its priority for conservation. Among the medicinal plants used by the community, 20 species were shortlisted as regularly used and found around the village. Out of these, 12 species that had scores above seven were considered top priority for conservation. A total of 1179 use reports were obtained from the villagers and they were placed in 12 use categories as defined in the International Classification of Primary Care system. Plants used to treat digestive system disorder had most use reports (21%), followed by the muscular skeletal disorders (20%). This study identified 12 medicinal plant species that should be given conservation priority to make them available for the wellbeing of the people and sustainability of ecosystem products and services. An assessment of medicinal plants species using standard ecological methods is recommended.

ACS Style

Jedidah Nankaya; Nathan Gichuki; Catherine Lukhoba; Henrik Balslev. Prioritization of Loita Maasai medicinal plants for conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation 2021, 30, 761 -780.

AMA Style

Jedidah Nankaya, Nathan Gichuki, Catherine Lukhoba, Henrik Balslev. Prioritization of Loita Maasai medicinal plants for conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation. 2021; 30 (3):761-780.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jedidah Nankaya; Nathan Gichuki; Catherine Lukhoba; Henrik Balslev. 2021. "Prioritization of Loita Maasai medicinal plants for conservation." Biodiversity and Conservation 30, no. 3: 761-780.

Review
Published: 27 December 2019 in Plants
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The use of medicinal plants for treatment of humans and animals is entrenched in the Maasai culture and traditional knowledge related to it is passed on from one generation to the next. A handful of researchers have in the past decades documented this knowledge. No single study has documented medicinal plant uses of the Maasai community as a whole. This review provides a consolidated database of the diversity and uses of medicinal plants among the Maasai in Kenya. The study will help conserve traditional medicinal plant knowledge that is valuable for the development of modern medicine. Relevant information on medicinal plants used by the Maasai of Kenya was extracted from journals, books, M.Sc., and Ph.D. dissertations. We found evidence of 289 plant species used by the Maasai of Kenya in traditional medicine. Most species were used to treat health conditions in the categories gastrointestinal and respiratory system disorders. The most used families were Leguminosae, Asteraceae, Malvaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Lamiaceae. Medicines were commonly prepared as a decoction and administered through oral ingestion, with roots reported to be the preferred plant part for medication. The Maasai preference for roots compared to other plant parts may be unsustainable and could threaten species availability in the future.

ACS Style

Jedidah Nankaya; Nathan Gichuki; Catherine Lukhoba; Henrik Balslev. Medicinal Plants of the Maasai of Kenya: A Review. Plants 2019, 9, 44 .

AMA Style

Jedidah Nankaya, Nathan Gichuki, Catherine Lukhoba, Henrik Balslev. Medicinal Plants of the Maasai of Kenya: A Review. Plants. 2019; 9 (1):44.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jedidah Nankaya; Nathan Gichuki; Catherine Lukhoba; Henrik Balslev. 2019. "Medicinal Plants of the Maasai of Kenya: A Review." Plants 9, no. 1: 44.

Journal article
Published: 07 October 2019 in Sustainability
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Knowledge and practice of medicinal plant use is embedded in the Maasai culture. However, it is not known how that knowledge and practices are acquired by children and transferred across generations. We assessed children’s knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses, methods of knowledge acquisition and transfer, and how that process is influenced by demographic attributes such as gender, level of education, and age. We interviewed 80 children who were 6–17 years old. Mann–Whitney U, Kruskal–Wallis tests and Spearman Rank order correlation were performed to determine the influence of gender, level of education, and age when they are in the process of acquiring ethnomedicinal plant knowledge. The Maasai children acquired knowledge of medicinal plants progressively with their age. Ethnomedicinal knowledge was not influenced by gender or level of education. The children were introduced to the knowledge of local medicinal plants and their use at an average age of seven years and the knowledge was transferred indiscriminately to both girls and boys. This study aids in the protection and conservation of medicinal plant knowledge by encouraging the sustainability of the local cultural heritage.

ACS Style

Jedidah Nankaya; Nathan Gichuki; Catherine Lukhoba; Henrik Balslev. Sustainability of the Loita Maasai Childrens’ Ethnomedicinal Knowledge. Sustainability 2019, 11, 5530 .

AMA Style

Jedidah Nankaya, Nathan Gichuki, Catherine Lukhoba, Henrik Balslev. Sustainability of the Loita Maasai Childrens’ Ethnomedicinal Knowledge. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (19):5530.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jedidah Nankaya; Nathan Gichuki; Catherine Lukhoba; Henrik Balslev. 2019. "Sustainability of the Loita Maasai Childrens’ Ethnomedicinal Knowledge." Sustainability 11, no. 19: 5530.