A preliminary survey of plants used in traditional medicine in the Grahamstown area

On the basis of interviews with traditional healers, diviners and villagers in the Grahamstown area, twenty-four plants used in traditional medicine are reported. The preparation and utilisation of these plants is as varied as the plants themselves. Some of the plants were previously known to ethnobotanists but because of the diversity of tribal groups in South Africa, new preparations of these plants were discovered. This also suggests that there are gaps in recorded knowledge of medicinal plant usage, therefore more research on traditional practice still needs to be undertaken before the knowledge is lost. The curative properties of these plants appear to be well known to the healers who use them but many of them still have to be chemically tested.