Study of ethnobotany of medicinal plants in Wonoharjo Village, Pangandaran District, West Java

Abstract

Nisyapuri FF, Iskandar J, Partasasmita R. 2018. Study of ethnobotany of medicinal plants in Wonoharjo Village,
Pangandaran District, West Java. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 4: 122-132. Indonesia has been known as own high diversity of
flora and fauna. In addition, Indonesia has been known high diversity of ethnics which has various distinctive traditions, including local
knowledge. One of the local knowledge or traditional knowledge is local knowledge on using of traditional medicinal plants. Scientific
study on local knowledge on medicinal plants can be carried out by ethnobotany of medicinal plants. This paper discussed on research
results on ethnobotany of medicinal plants in Wonoharjo Village, Pangandaran District, West Java. Four aspects namely some
predominant diseases of village people, plant medicinal plants that are predominantly used by people, source of the medicinal plants in
village ecosystem, and using and processing of medicinal plants were discussed in this paper. Method used in this study was qualitative
with descriptive analysis, while the observation and semi-structure interviews with competent informants that were purposively selected
were applied to collect the primary data in the field. The results showed that it was recoded 19 kinds of human diseases in Wonoharjo
village. It was recorded 31 medicinal plant species with 20 families that are predomnantly used by people to treat varous diseases. All
medical plant species were collected from the homegarden agroecosystem. The processing of the medicinal plants were done by various
means, including pounding and boiling, and using it by direct consumption of fresh materials, drinking, and putting in pain body. The
results of study showed that the local knowledge of village people in general has similar to that the Western scientific knowledge view.
Therefore, the local knowledge of village people on medicinal plants and using those medicinal plants to treat various diseases could be
integrated with Western scientific knowledge for supporting development of the health treatment and health improving in the
community in the future.