Abstract:

Ophidian envenomation is a public health problem mainly in sub-Saharan African countries. The high cost of antivenom and/or its frequent unavailability in primary health care centres forces most snakebite victims to consult traditional healers for medicinal plants as a first-line treatment. A cross-sectional ethnobotanical survey was carried out from May to December 2022. We included 117 participants from the Hauts-Bassins and Southwest regions. The participants were traditional health practitioners. We used a questionnaire administered during interviews, and the responses of health practitioners were entered on an Excel sheet. Knowledge was assessed quantitatively using relative citation frequency. Of the total enrolled traditional health practitioners, 65 were recruited in the Hauts-Bassins region, and 52 were recruited in the Southwest region. A total of 31 plant families, subdivided into 58 species, were mentioned by the two groups of traditional healers.