Medicinal plants used in the promotion of animal health in Tanzania.

Plants with curative properties enjoy the highest consideration in indigenous systems of medicine throughout the world. This is especially true in the developing countries, where imported drugs are very expensive and are therefore inaccessible to the vast majority of the population. The author presents the results of an ethnobotanical study conducted in three main areas, namely the Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Mbeya regions of Tanzania. Special attention was paid to the use of plants for veterinary purposes. A total of 103 plant species within 48 families are collected for their curative properties in the field of veterinary medicine. The family which provided the greatest number of species was Compositae (13 species), followed by Euphorbiaceae (11 species) and Papillionaceae (9 species). A total of 38 different pathological states are treated, the most frequent being gastrointestinal disorders, followed by helminthosis, wounds and urethral infections.