Table 3 List of top 15 medicinal plants used for the treatment of human ailments in Habru District based on the use citation report by informants

Solanum somalense Franchet

Headache, evil eyes, febrile disease, fever, evil spirit, swelling, toothache, diarrhea

Typhoid and fire burn [19]

Ehretia cymosa Thonn

Evil spirit

Headache and abdominal pain [42]

Cleome gynandra L.

Wound, ear infection, evil spirit

Diarrhea [43]

Croton macrostachyus Hochst. ex Delile

Atopic eczema, liver problem, stomachache, gonorrhea, malaria, chronic skin diseases, scabies, wound, minor bleeding, febrile disease

Atopic eczema [44], Liver problem, stomachache [45, 46], gonorrhea [18, 45, 47], malaria [46, 47], wound [16, 47], minor bleeding [16], scabies [16, 18, 46], tape worm [45], gastritis [22], bone fracture [22], snake poison [45], wound cancer [13]

Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal

Headache, evil eyes, gonorrhea, syphilis, febrile disease, fever, evil spirit, swelling, toothache

Asthma/coughing [44, 45], febrile disease [18, 48], typhoid [19], fever [48], swelling [18, 19], cancer [13], malaria [47]

Eucalyptus globulus Labill

Common cold, coughing, pneumonia, gout, headache, febrile disease

Common cold [17, 18, 22, 49], coughing [17, 22, 44, 46], headache [22], febrile disease [17, 18, 22, 26, 50], influenza [47]

Ocimum lamiifolium Hochst. ex. Benth

Febrile disease

Febrile disease [15, 17, 26, 46], ear infection [15], coughing [44], headache [47], parasites [25], diarrhea [48]

Verbascum sinaiticum Benth

Febrile disease, wound

Febrile disease [18], stomachache [18, 45], snake bite [48], tonsillitis [44]

Zingiber officinale Roscoe

Stomachache, common cold

Coughing [17, 44], stomachache [18, 26, 49, 50], headache [15], common cold [17], influenza [47], cancer [13], malaria [15], swelling [18], tonsillitis [44]

Allium sativum L.

Atopic eczema, asthma, common cold, dandruff, pneumonia, coughing, malaria

Skin infection [19], febrile disease [22, 45, 51], malaria [17, 18, 22, 45,46,47,48], intestinal parasite [48], stomachache [18, 22], influenza [17, 45, 52], common cold [17], headache [15, 52], pneumonia [45], coughing [17], wound [46]

Dodonaea viscosa subsp. angustifolia (L.f.) J.G.West

Atopic eczema, wound, eye disease/trachoma

Diarrhea [22], eye disease/trachoma [18], wound [18, 46, 51], tape worm [45]

Rumex nervosus Vahl

Warts, wound, fire burn

Stomachache [51], diarrhea [49], scabies [48], wound [18], snake bite [46], breast cancer [13, 46], warts [45]. vomiting [49]

Euclea racemosa L

Wound

Dandruff [18]

Olea europaea L. subsp. cuspidata (Wall. & G.Don) Cif

Dandruff, stomachache

Asthma [46], psychiatric disease [48], tonsillitis [17, 44], gout [51], dandruff [18], fever [17], tumor [13], eye infection [46, 49], snake bite [19]

Linum usitatissimum L.

Coughing, stomachache

Asthma [22], liver disease [22], wound [45, 49], placental retention [46], swelling [50]