An Ethnobotanical Study of Plant Species Used for Medicine by the Eegun Indigenous Tribal Group of Lagos State , Nigeria

The ethnobotanical study of plant species used for medicine by the Egun indigenous tribal group of Lagos State, Nigeria was undertaken with a view to assess the valuable plant species in the area and their methods of preparation. In the recent time, there have been a lot of ethnobotanical studies conducted among the varying ethnic compositions in Nigeria, but a gross dearth of such studies abounds among the Eegun ethnic composition. Several communities were selected, among which 10 respondents were randomly interviewed with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire guide. Even more, in the LGA, a major market (Badagry market), was chosen where 5 botanical vendors were interviewed on the plant parts sold. A semi-structured questionnaire matrix was used to interview the respondents. All the interviewed were focused, conversational and two-way in communication. Group interviews were conducted in each community to established group consensus on the individual responses provided. The results revealed that a total of 44 plant species, belonging to 38 families, were observed to be valued for medicine and health maintenance. The respondents’ indigenous knowledge on these species revealed that diverse diseases were managed with the identified plant species. The parts of the plants used varied, as well as the methods of preparations which were simple, as well as the mode of utilization. Results obtained from the test on the abundance of the identified plant species used in the present study revealed that 7% of the identified species were very abundant, 41% were abundant, 41% were frequent, while 2% of them were rare. Adequate protection of medicinal plant resources through conservation in their natural reserves is recommended.


Introduction
Ethnobotanical studies today are recognized as the most viable method of identifying new medicinal plant or refocusing on those reported for bioactive constituents (Ogol et al., 2002).The use of plants for treating diseases is as old as human kind.Hence, this has significantly supported primary health care.All cultures from ancient times to the present day have used plants as a source of medicines.Today, as many as 80% of the world people depend on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs (WHO, 2005).This great surge of public interest in the use of plant as medicines has been based on the assumption that the plant will be available on a continual basis; unfortunately, no concerted efforts are being made to ensure this particularly in the face of the threats posed by increasing demand, a vastly increasing human population and extensive destruction of plant-rich habitats such as the tropical forests, wetlands, Mediterranean ecosystems and parts of the arid zone.
The Eegun tribe is found in Badagry Local Government, Lagos State of Nigeria.The tribe is rich in medicinal lore because of the mangrove nature of the vegetation in the area.Its high humid condition promotes rapid growth of dense vegetation in the area.The use of plants for medicinal purpose is common and widespread among the Eegun people in Badagry (Makinde et al., 2015).Knowledge of traditional medicine is being passed by oral traditions from one generation to another among the indigenes.
In the recent time, there have been a lot of ethnobotanical studies conducted among the varying ethnic compositions in Nigeria, but a gross dearth of such studies abounds among the Eegun ethnic composition.Thus, the present study aimed at assessing the plant species that are valued for use as medicine by the Egun people at Badagry creek, Lagos State, Nigeria.

Methodology
In Badagry Local government area, five rural communities were selected randomly for the study.These communities were Aivoji, Ajido, Gbaji, Sakpo and Sito.In each community, 10 respondents were randomly selected and interviewed with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire guide.Also, in the LGA, a major market (Badagry market) where 5 botanical vendors were interviewed on the plant parts sold in the market.
A semi-structured questionnaire matrix was used to interview the respondents, which were focused, conversational and two-way in communication.Plant species whose parts where valued for folk medicine were identified.The diseases they cure and /or prevent were identified, as well as plants' mode of administration.Similarly, medicinal plant vendors, group of respondents and key informants where identified and interviewed as stated by Adedeji et al. (2018).
The index of wealth used to classify the economic status of respondents was based on the cumulative economic returns from the assets and production of the respondents.Hence, respondents were classified into resource-poor and resource-rich.

Materials and Methods
The study area Badagry, the study area, is a coastal town in Badagry Local Government Area (LGA) in Lagos State, Nigeria.It is located between the city of Lagos and Seme, the border town of Benin Republic.According to the 2006 census, the municipality had a total population of 237,731 and covered 442,993 km 2 area.The Badagry creek is located on latitude 2.42' and 3.2' E and between longitude 6.23 and 6.28'N, and forms part of the continuous lagoon that stretches from port Novo to Lagos.
The climate is dominated by heavy rain season which last from April to October.The soil in Badagry is lightly grey sandy type with vegetation over the low lying plains and marshes near the lagoons and creeks.The vegetation is made up of woody plant, shrubs and oil palm trees in the sandy areas, while the marshy areas are covered by mangrove.The mean monthly temperature fluctuates around 30 ºC.The relative humidity is high throughout the year and may not be less than 70-80% around Lagos and other lagoons and seaside locations (Abegunde, 2002)  Group interviews were conducted in each community to established group consensus on the individual responses provided.Key informants consisting of health, forestry and community development officers were identified in each community and interviewed.The botanicals were collected, identified and voucher specimens were kept in the Departments' herbarium.

Results
Table 1 revealed that the herbal vendors, their clients and resident's respondents transcend sex, age and literacy status, though most of them were females (60% among vendors, 70% among clients), adults of ages between 20-50 years (60% of both vendors and clients, respectively) and illiterates (35%).Field observation revealed that the Eegun people have knowledge of the medicinal values of plants around their environment.The indigenous ethno-botanical knowledge was not documented and the act of transmitting such data from one generation to another is declining.
Trading in medicinal plants is now prominent in the study area and was dominated by females who sourced their stocks from diverse areas within and outside the study area.Field observation further revealed that medicinal plants vendors in the study area could be classified as wholesale and retail vendors.Indigenous knowledge on the composition and prescriptions of the plant derived medicine are now learnt as profession.Thus vendors are now practitioners that attend to numerous patents on daily basis.Various plant parts constituted the ingredients for the plant derived medicine.
A total of 44 plant species, belonging to 38 families, were observed to be valued for medicine and health maintenance (Table 2).While 5 of these species where members of the family Rutaceae, 4 were Annonaceae, 3 were members of the families Anacardiaceae, Asteraceae, Poacea and Rubiaceae.The families Amaranthaceae, Apocynaceae, Asteraceae, Caesapiniaceae, Clusiaceae, Combretaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Meliaceae and Piperaceae have 2 members each, while other families possess one member each.
Secondary information used in the study revealed the phytochemical constituents present in each of the identified plant species (Table 3).The respondents' indigenous knowledge on these species revealed that diverse diseases were managed with the identified plant species (Table 4).
The parts of the plants used varied.The whole plants of 43% of the identified species were valued for use as medicine (Table 4), 16% of the leaves only, 14% of roots only, 11% of combined leaves and stems, 7% of combined roots and stems and 2% each of flowers only, seeds only, stems only and combines flowers, seeds and leaves were equally valued for medicine.
The methods of preparations were simple and easy to accomplish.The responses (Table 5) revealed that 48% of the plant-based medicines were prepared by boiling the identified plant parts in water, 30% by infusion, 18% by combined infusion and decoction methods and 5% by blending.The mode of utilization of the plant-derived medicines varied also, it was observed that 84% of the plant based medicine was utilized by oral administration only, 9% by bathing only and 7% by both bathing and oral administration.Results obtained from the test on the abundance of the identified plant species used in the study (Table 6) revealed that 7% of the identified species were very abundant, 41% were abundant, and 41% were frequent, while 2% of them were rare.Table 7shows the habit of the plant species: 32%, 39% and 30% of the identified species were trees, shrubs and herbs respectively.

Discussion
The study revealed that Eegun, like other tribes in Nigeria (Kayode et al., 2017), still valued the use of plants for health maintenance and management.Medicinal plants are increasingly recognized worldwide as an alternative source of efficacious and inexpensive medications to synthetic chemo-therapeutic compound (Omogbadegun et al., 2011).Field observation shows that indigenous knowledge on these plants is been passed to the younger generation (Table 1) and the varying socio-economic classification of the respondents does not serve as prerequisites to this transmission.The trading and apprenticeship in medicinal plants observed in the present study tends to suggest that dependence on the use of medicinal plants will be sustained in the study area.Previous study by Ekanem and Udoh (2009) asserted that plants now constitute a major economic resource of most countries of the world including Nigeria.
The intimate consciousness demonstrated by respondents on the medicinal values of the identified species in the study area is further buttressed by the results obtained from the secondary sources that the identified species were rich in phytochemicals (Tables 2 and 3).Ayoola et al. (2008) asserted that these phytochemicals have beneficial effects on health and play active roles in amelioration of diseases.The diversity in the parts of the identified plant valued for medicine tends to lend credence to the assertion of Osabor et al. (2016) that varying quantities of the phytochemicals abounds in the plant parts.Similarly, diversity abounds in such plants species, diseases managed by the plants and the methods of administration of the plant medicine in this study.Field observation revealed that quite often, only the medicinal ingredients (the plant parts) are obtained from the vendors in the markets, while the client prepares the medicine.The methods of preparations were simple without any technology involved.Kayode and Odesola (2017) made similar observation and asserted that this constitutes positive incentive to the preference for plant medicine and the cheap cost of the plant medicine.Also, Makinde et al. (2015) observed that many herbal vendors, trado-medical practitioners have Western education with background in diverse disciplines.Many undergo tutelage as apprentice for several months and some attended conferences and workshops.All these have resulted in better preparations, packaging and thus the efficacies of the plant medicines in the recent times.
Most of the identified plant species were presently 'frequent' on the abundance scale used in the current study (Table 7) with 2% of the species already attained the 'rare' status.Most of the species were shrubs and trees.Thus, with the parts of the plants used including whole plants, roots, stems, barks, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds, as well as the increase awareness and preference for plant derived medicine coupled with rapidly developing industrialization and conversion of vegetation to housing and other economic activities in the study area, the need for conservation (Kayode et al., 2015) of most of the identified species cannot be over-emphasized.

Conclusions
Conservation ensures the availability and sustainability of the identified species for the present and future generations of the inhabitants of the study area.It is therefore necessary to preserve the plant diversity of the vegetation of the study area.Some of the wild medicinal plants should be domesticated.Similarly, sustainable harvesting techniques should be practiced.Part of the existing vegetation in the study area should be constituted as botanical gardens so that adequate protection of medicinal plant resources through conventional conservation in their natural reserves could be attained.

Table 1 .
Socio-economic classification of respondents sampled in Badagry Local Government area of Lagos State

Table 2 .
Identified plant species valued for medicine in Badagry Local Government area of Lagos State

Table 4 .
Parts used for medicine in the identified plant species in Badagry Local Government, Lagos State T. danielle, C. citratus, C. adansoni, S. dulcificum, A. africanus, C. olitorus.

Table 5 .
Diseases cured, methods of preparations and utilizations of plant medicines obtainable from the identified plant species in Badagry Local Government, Lagos State

Table 6 .
Abundance of the identified plant species in Badagry Local Government Area, Lagos State, Nigeria