ethnobotany

In order to gather all the information concerning the nature and the therapeutic uses of the medicinal plants, an ethnobotanical study of the medicinal plants was realized Oran city’s circle, between December 2017 and April 2018. This research was conducted in collaboration with different plant users such as ordinary users (500 people) who were randomly selected (340 women, 160 men). The survey targeted 500 people from the local population, including 423 people preferring medicinal plants with a rate of 84% and 77 people who received treatment in modern medicine with a rate of 16%. The results obtained from the population made it possible to identify 58 medicinal plants which are divided into 34 families, of which three are the most dominant, in particular Lamiaceae (29.55%), Apiaceae (17.96%) and Verbenaceae (14.65%). all listed plants with properties against allergy. the leaves are the most used organs (34%) and the majority of the remedies is prepared as an infusion (58%), the respiratory diseases occupy the first place with a rate of 42%. The results obtained constitute a very valuable source of information for the region studied and for the national medicinal flora. They could be a database for further research in the fields of photochemistry and pharmacology and for the purpose of searching for new natural substances.

In traditional medicine, there are many natural crude drugs that have the potential to treat many disease and disorders, one of them is Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub (Syn. Butea frondosa; Family Fabaceae) popularly known as 'palas', and commonly known as ‘Flame of forest’. Butea monosperma is a tree of tropical and subtropical climate found throughout the drier parts of India, often gregarious in forests, open grasslands and wastelands. It grows on a wide variety of soils including shallow, gravelly sites, black cotton soil, clay loams, and even saline or waterlogged soils. It is an erect, medium sized tree of 12-15 m high, with a crooked trunk and irregular branches. There are various species of Butea monosperma available over the world. The leaves 3 foliate, large and stipulate. Number of constituents belonging to imides, lactones, flavonoids, sterols, and alkaloids has been reported from various species of Butea. Butea monosperma is considered as a good source for products such as fodder, fuel, fibre, timber, gum or resin, dyestuff and traditionally in number of ailments. Pharmacologically Butea monosperma has been reported for various activities such as anthelmintic, anticonceptive, anticonvulsive, antidiabetic, antidiarrhoeal, antiestrogenic and antifertility, antiinflammatory, antimicrobial, antifungal, antibacterial, antistress, chemopreventive, haemaggultinating, hepatoprotective, radical scavenging, thyroid inhibitory, antiperoxidative and hypoglycemic effects and wound healing activities. The present review discusses the morphology, ethanobotany, phytochemical constituents, and traditional uses of each part of plants as well products of plant and pharmacological activities of each part of plant in details.