Data Sheet 2_An ethnopharmacological assessment of medicinal plants in Malanje Municipalit

272 ethnospecies were documented from interviews with 20 traditional healers in Malanje Municipality, Angola. The study, authored by Agostinho António Barroso and published on figshare in 2026, provides the first systematic baseline of traditional medicinal plant knowledge for the region. It identifies 78 taxa to species level, with Fabaceae as the most represented family, and prioritizes species like Terminalia brachystemma for further study.

Use Cases

• Prioritizing plant species for phytochemical screening based on reported Rank Order Priority (ROP) scores.
• Analyzing plant part usage patterns (e.g., leaves vs. roots) for conservation impact assessments.
• Mapping therapeutic applications to ICD-11 categories, such as gastrointestinal disorders or infectious diseases.
• Studying family-level biodiversity (e.g., Fabaceae, Asteraceae) in traditional medicinal systems.

Strengths

• Data collection spanned 5 years (2018-2023), providing a temporal baseline.
• Includes quantitative indices like frequency measures and Rank Order Priority (ROP).
• Taxonomic verification was performed against herbarium material and online resources.
• Therapeutic indications are grouped using standardized ICD-11 categories.

Limitations

• The sample size of informants is modest (n=20 traditional healers).
• Incomplete taxonomic resolution, with only 78 of 272 ethnospecies identified to species level.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Agostinho António Barroso via figshare.

Collection Method

Semi-structured interviews, participatory observation, in situ photographic documentation, and GPS mapping.

Time Range

2018 to 2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-17 13:07:30; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Malanje Municipality, north-central Angola