Ethnobotanical Practices of Matigsalug Tribe on Medicinal Plants at Barangay Baganihan, Marilog District, Davao City

Aims: The aim of this study was to determine the traditional medicinal plants used by the Matigsalug tribe in Barangay Baganihan, Marilog District, Davao City, and for the purpose of providing baseline data to enable future pharmacological and phytochemical studies of identified medicinal plants.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at Barangay Baganihan, Marilog District, Davao City with the following coordinates: 7º28'26"N and 125º14'36"E. Barangay Baganihan is inhabited by the Matigsalug tribe. The community also has the reputation of using alternative medicines in curing illnesses and is also known to have continually practised its indigenous tradition.

Methodology: The field sampling and documentation was made at Barangay Baganihan, Marilog District Davao City. It aims to determine the ethnobotanical practices and their ecological status of the medicinal plants used by Matigsalug Tribe. Respondents were randomly selected aging 18 to 60 years old for the interview using validated survey questionnaires.

Results: Overall, there were 35 plants identified with 22 families. Family of Poaceae had the highest number of species. Matigsalug Tribe mostly used leaves (28.57%), while the method of preparation was decoction (51.43%) and utilisation of these medicinal plants was ingestion (57.1%). The study revealed 22 identified species with a Fidelity Value of 100%. The disease categories with the highest Informed Consensus Factor were dermatological diseases (0.9 ICF). Based on the field sampling, there was 36 species with 26 families identified. In terms of species diversity index, Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index was used and obtained its value H’=2.736177 which indicates a high species diversity in the area.

Conclusion: The study revealed that the Matigsalug tribe was dependent on medicinal plants for their primary health care need. Therefore, there should be an educational program for awareness of the community on how to improve their practices and protection and conservation of the medicinal plants.