ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS USED IN THREE DISTRICTS OF IMBABURA PROVINCE, ECUADOR

An ethnobotanical inventory of medicinal plants was carried out in three Districts (called locally Cantons: Antonio Ante, Ibarra and Otavalo) of the province of Imbabura, Ecuador. The information was obtained from 802 people: 525 women and 277 men, aged 18 to 79, with a semi-structured survey. In this survey, we recorded 59 species of medicinal plants belonging to 33 families and 56 genera. The most important families of medicinal use are Lamiaceae (9 species), Asteraceae (8) and Apiaceae (4). The most commonly used part of the plant were the leaves (43%) and flowers (21%). Most of the species are used to treat joint pains, headaches, sore throat (78%), gastrointestinal (71%) and respiratory diseases (53%) and the most common use is in the form of tea. The medicinal species with the greatest cultural acceptance, according to the Tramil significant use (TSU) are Matricaria chamomilla L. (78%), Aloysia citriodora Palau (58%), Plantago major L. (56%) and Origanum vulgare L. (56%). Out of the Young informants (ages 18 to 20), 71% know up to 10 medicinal species.