Ethnomedicinal Survey on the Uses of Mistletoe in South-Western Nigeria

Abstract

Survey on the ethnomedicinal uses of mistletoe in Southwestern Nigeria was carried out in various major market centers identified in the major capital towns of four different States in the Southwest Nigeria including Oyo, Ondo, Ogun and Ekiti States. A combination of social surveys and direct field observations comprising literatures, through friends, internet and consultation of local herb vendors were used in this study. A total number of 50 respondents comprising both male and female of various levels of educational status were interviewed.  The major occupation of the people is farming, trading and herbal practice and the African mistletoe is widely used in the Southwestern Nigeria folk medicine to treat diabetes mellitus and hypertension. . Only aged ones above 40 years (86%) compared to the least represented youths (4%) could only give details of the information about mistletoes. However, the problem of identification and authentication still remained. There is need for further scientific research to explore the pharmacological importance of mistletoes as the result shows that it possesses a lot of ethnomedicinal assets.