Medicinal plants of the eastern region of Madagascar.

Sixty-eight plants used in the traditional medicinal practices of the Betsimisaraka and Tanala peoples of the eastern region of Madagascar are reported. Preparations and utilizations of these medicinal plants are as varied as the plants themselves. Some of the plants discussed are known to science, but because of the diversity of tribal groups in Madagascar, new preparations and utilizations of these plants were based on the ethnobotanical data collected from the Betsimisaraka and Tanala. Many of the plants discussed remain to be chemically tested. Ethnopharmacological information is in danger of being lost in Madagascar as slash and burn agriculture destroys much of the forest, and the elder traditional healers, often illiterate, pass away without handing down their knowledge.