Assessment of knowledge and usage custom of traditional insect/mosquito repellent plants in Addis Zemen Town, South Gonder, North Western Ethiopia

Aim of the study: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out to assess the knowledge and usage custom of traditional insect/mosquitoes repellent plants among the inhabitants in Addis Zemen Town, Ethiopia. Materials and methods: Stratified, systematic random sampling was used for selection of 393 households from the total of 5161 households. One adult from each household was interviewed. The ethnobotonical survey was carried out during the period February 2007 to March 2007. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS, version 9.0. Range and mean were analysed and appropriate tables, graphs and percentage were displayed. Level of significance also determined by using 95% of confidence intervals and p-value. Results: Overall, 97.2% of the respondents had ample knowledge and usage custom concerning traditional insect/mosquito repellent plants. Application of smoke (91.55%) was one of the most commonly well-known methods amongst local community by burning the plant parts such as leaves, stems and roots. Leaves were used by 90.2% for the application smoke. Knowledge and usage custom of traditional insect/mosquito repellent plants had significantly associated with sex (p = 0.013) and lower income of respondents (p = 0.002). In spite of this, knowledge and usage custom had no significant association with age and educational status. Furthermore, the survey also indicated that most commonly known traditional insect/mosquito repellent plants were Woira*11* = Vernacular Name (Local native language-Amharic). (Olea europaea) 44%, Tinjut* (Ostostegia integrifolia) 39%, Neem* (Azadirachta indica) 14.1%, Wogert* (Silene macroserene) 1.4%, and Kebercho* (Echinops sp.) 1.1%. Conclusions: Indigenous traditional insect/mosquito repellent plants have been used by local hamlet since ancient times for various medicinal purposes. Besides, they are not toxic like existing modern synthetic chemical repellents. Therefore, the traditional use of repellent plants should be encouraged and promoted among the local community. © 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.