ETHNOMEDICINAL SURVEY OF PLANTS USED FOR MALARIA TREATMENT BY SUPPORT ZONE COMMUNITIES OF CROSS RIVER NATIONAL PARK, NIGERIA

There has been a renewed interest in the research of medicinal plants for both preventive andtherapeutic purposes even though their use has been in existence since time immemorial for man’sgood health and wellbeing of both body and soul. This ethnomedicinal study explores plants used intreating malaria and their sustainability in the support zone communities of the Cross River NationalPark. Data collected using a semi-structured questionnaire interview of thirty key informants, wasanalyzed descriptively by computing absolute averages, frequencies and percentages. A two-wayclustering technique was employed to classify and/or group the plants used using the SPSSprogramme. The use-value technique was used to determine the relative importance. A total of fortyeightspecies with mostly trees (65%) were reported to be used. Majority of the remedies used weredecoctions (55%) and administered through oral voice (51%). From the clustering, plants used incombination with others or used by the same key informants clustered together signifying theirimportance. Highest use-value (7.0) was recorded for species used in combination with others. Toachieve sustainability, only the amount required and when needed is harvested as well as drying ofplant parts. Some species are scarce as a result of poor harvesting methods and habitat destruction.Since a number of the remedies are obtained from the barks through unsustainable harvesting, theprobability of survival of individual plants after harvest may be at risk. It is therefore recommendedto identify priority species for conservation, encourage local participation in conservation activitiesand increase collaboration within traditional healers to reduce knowledge loss.