Knowledge and self-reported practice of the local inhabitants on traditional insect repellent plants in Western Hararghe zone, Ethiopia

Ethnopharmacological relevance: This paper reveals the trend of knowledge and self-reported practice of traditional insect repellent plants (TIRPs) and could serve as a baseline data to identify/formulate novel plant-based insect repellents in the near future. Aim of the study: Insect repellent plants usage is a long-standing and age old tradition. Thus, the major objective of this survey was to assess the knowledge and self-reported practice of the local inhabitants on TIRPs in Western Hararghe zone, Ethiopia. Materials and methods: The ethnobotanical survey was conducted between January and March 2011 via administering pre-tested questionnaire by involving the selected 150 household members in the study area. Results: The survey results clearly reveal that nearly 92.1% [90.1% (99/110) of female and 97.5% (39/40) of male] of the respondents have had adequate awareness on TIRPs. Leaves were the most widely applied plant parts and burning/smoldering the plant materials in order to generate smoke was the most common practice. Chi-square statistical analysis shows that there was no significant difference observed in the knowledge of the repellent plants between the gender (P-value = 0.134), average monthly income (Pvalue = 0.529) and educational status (P-value = 0.107) butthere was a significant association with the age (P-value = 0.012) of respondents. However, repellent plants usage custom is significantly associated with gender (P-value = 0.021) and educational status (P-value = 0.003) of the respondents but, there was such no significant relationship between the age (P-value = 0.312) average monthly income (P-value = 0.111) and repellent plants usage custom. Conclusion: Conducting more ethnobotanical survey on TIRPs is extremely important in order to generate and maintain the data-base. Besides, identifying the bio-active molecules, which are responsible for the repellent activity and eventually conducting laboratory and field based studies to evaluate their efficacy and safety are extremely imperative to formulatenew classes ofplant-based insect repellents/insecticides in the near future.