Ethnobotanical uses of plants by populations of Gonate County, Central-West of Côte d'Ivoire

This study was carried out to identify categories of ethnobotanical uses of plant in six localities of Gonate county, Central Western Cote d’Ivoire. An ethnobotanical survey based on semi-structured interviews was performed with 165 interviewees. Forty-four plants species including 42 genera and 27 families were recorded. The most used families were Euphorbiaceae, Verbenaceae and Anacardiaceae while Microphanerophyts (26.86%) were the most represented biological types. Plants are specially collected from fields, along the tracks, Forests, markets, and neighboring villages. Populations mainly used plants in four fields. There were Food (45.56%), the most important, Pharmacopoeia (27.98%), Energy (15.11%) and Handicrafts (11.35%). Overall, Tectona grandis was the most used plant with a citation index (IC) of 58.79%. Twenty-four 24 plants including Dioscorea alata (IC = 46.06%), Manihot esculenta (IC = 42.42%), Mangifera indica (IC = 38.18%) and Ceiba pentandra (IC = 36.97%) were moderately used. Regarding Pharmacopoeia field, the pathologies treated with plants were diarrhea, dysentery, stomach aches, ulcers, and abdominal pains, hemorrhoids, infertility and sexual transmitted diseases. These data could help studies to promote and develop conservation strategies for these useful resources.