Background: Studies focusing on plants used medicinally to heal and manage rhinitis are very scarce in Africa and elsewhere.
Objectives: To document plants used by traditional healers (THs) in the treatment and management of rhinitis and related
symptoms in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
Methods: Data was gathered using a semi structured interviews with 105 THs in the Limpopo Province, supplemented by field
expeditions for plant specimen collection and observation.
Results: 63 plant species from 59 genera distributed across 40 botanical families, mainly the
Asteraceae (7 spp.) and
Euphorbiaceae
(6 spp.) were therapeutically used by THs. Overall, 77 herbal recipes (87%=mono and 12.9%=poly), mainly prepared from
roots (55.5%) and leaves (19%) were recorded. Most of these recipes were processed via pounding (59.7%) and boiling (20.7%).
Oral (44.1%) and nasal (33.7%) was the preferred modes of dispensing remedies by THs.
Artemisia afra
,
Clerodendrum ternatum
,
Cryptocarya transvaalensis
,
Enicostema axillare
,
Kalanchoe brachyloba
,
Lasiosiphon caffer
,
Lippia javanica
,
Schkuhria pinnata
,
Securidaca longepedunculata
,
Spirostachys africana
,
Stylochaeton natalensis and
Zanthoxylum capense
were the most widely used and preferred species for
treatment of rhinitis and/or related symptom by all questioned THs.
Conclusion: This study is the first to document plants used traditionally to treat rhinitis in Africa. Therefore, it provides a baseline
data on the plants used to heal rhinitis in the Limpopo Province. Finding of this study can be used as apedestal for further
investigation in to effective plant-based anti-rhinitis drugs.
