Useful plants and tradition for pregnancy, child delivery and for post-partum care used by people living around Analavelona forest in South west Madagascar

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">Free listing and semi-structured interviews were undertaken in order to get a list of plant used during pregnancy, child delivery and post-partum care in Sakaraha district, South-western Madagascar. Use of Anthropac and XLstat software were performed for plant lists analysis. One hundred twelve plant species belonging to 90 genera and 46 families are cited as useful for the care of women during pregnancy period, childbirth and post-partum. Those species are mentioned by 46% of the 259 informants interviewed. <i>Jatropha curcas</i> L., <i>Cedrelopsis grevei</i> Baill., <i>Ficus brachyclada</i> Baker, <i>Flacourtia ramontchi</i> L'Hér. and <i>Henonia scoparia</i> Moq are the most used plant species as they are cited by more than 30 informants. Women from our site study are entirely dependent on plants during pregnancy, child delivery and post-partum period. This study will contribute to preventing loss of traditional knowledge from the southern part of Madagascar.</span>