Local knowledge of medicinal plants in sub-ethnic Batak Simalungun of North Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

Silalahi M, Supriatna J, Walujo EB, Nisyawati. 2015. Local knowledge of medicinal plants in sub-ethnic Batak Simalungun of North Sumatra, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 16: 44-54. Research on the local knowledge of medicinal plants by sub-ethnic Batak
Simalungun of North Sumatra was conducted, using an ethnobotanical approach. The sample consisted of 8 key informants and 32
general respondents, who were grouped into two, namely those who were 30-50 years old and >50 years old. Data were analyzed both
qualitatively by descriptive statistics and quantitatively by calculating the index of cultural significance (ICS) and the use value (UVs).
It was found that 239 species (170 genera, 70 families) of medicinal plants were used to cure 18 kinds of natural diseases and 2 kinds of
supra natural diseases. Almost half of those plants (119 species) had leaves used as medicines. Among the diseases, gastrointestinal
disorders had the highest number of medicinal plants used (72 species), followed by fever (64 species), and fractures (41 species). It
seemed that younger generation had lost their knowledge in the medicinal plants because their knowledge of medicinal plants (48.19 ±
8.35 species) was lower than the that of older generation (170.19 ± 18.38 species), while our key informants had the highest knowledge
of medicinal plants among respondents (202.00 ± 12.32 species).