Ethnopharmacological survey of plants used in the traditional treatment of pain conditions in Mali

Pain is among the major concerns of healthcare authorities across the world. It is complicated to diagnose, manage and treat. Current western treatments are successful to some extent in relieving pain; they provide minimum improvements in terms of physical and emotional functioning and are often accompanied by side effects. Finding new solutions in pain management has thus become a priority. Natural products have always been a huge source of new active principles; traditional medicine is thus a key to innovation. In Mali, traditional remedies are more popular than pharmaceutical drugs but this knowledge, verbally transferred from generation to generation is at risk as younger generations are not taking over. Thus, this study was designed to identify plants that are used traditionally in the South of Mali for the treatment of painful conditions. Data was collected by means of semi-structured face-to-face interviews with traditional healers (N = 108) in the regions of Bamako, Sikasso and DioIla. Two quantitative ethnopharmacological indexes were calculated: Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) and Fidelity Level (FL) when RFC > 0.10. A total of 66 plant species distributed across 29 families were recorded during this two-month survey. Stomach aches and external pains were the most cited pain conditions followed by body pains and pain due to diseases such as diabetes and sickle cell disease. Cassia sieberiana DC. (RFC = 0,22), Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides (Lam.) Zepren. & Timler (0,13), Pericopsis laxiflora (Bench.) Meeuwen (0,11), Flueggea virosa (Roxb. ex Willd) Royle (0,08) and Sarcocephalus latifolius (Sm.) E.A.Bruce (0,08) were the most cited plants. This ethnopharmacological survey provides preliminary data for the discovery of new analgesic molecules.