Research Title: Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plant Teucrium L. (Lamiaceae) in eastern Libya

Introduction

Since the beginning of man on Earth, they used plants in medical treatments and curing from their illness and fatigue. This knowledge bequeathed from generation to generation encompassing concepts for protection and restoration of health. Gradually, and as the scientific considerations developed these plants undergone analyses and examinations to get more benefits from them. From the Aristotle up into the 18th century botanical and medicinal knowledge was documented and spread in illustrated herbals. Due to the rising costs and side effects of synthetic drugs for personal health, peoples returned back to explore new plant-derived drugs and became interest in the medicinal plans documentation and usage (Hoareau and DaSilva 1999) [9] . Poor developed and Asian countries became now pioneer in traditional use of herbs and restore their experience in this field. In fact they restore their inherited knowledge and began to get the more benefits from their wild natural plants. These herbs became in the form of tablets, mixture of herbs or even in liquid form and selling in these countries in herbal shops called Attar or indigenous practitioners for use. In fact the use of herbs is not always safe, but Posadzki et al. (2013) [15] reported several side effects from using some hers without precautions. Ekor (2011) [5] warned from the side effects caused from the use of inadequate knowledge of the mode of action of these herbs. From the most important groups of plants in the treatment of many illnesses are those containing volatile oils in their tissues, bioactive compounds or alkalis. Families Leguminosae, Euphorbiaceae, Apocynaceae, Malvaceae, Amaranthaceae, Rutaceae, Lamiaceae, Menispermaceae, Asteraceae, Phyllanthaceae, Rubiaceae, Zingiberaceae, Moraceae, Solanaceae, and Vitaceae considered from the most important families in this concept worldwide (Phumthum et al. 2019) [14] . Members of family Lamiaceae are widely used in traditional uses for their highly contents of volatile oils. This family, considered one of the most important herbal families, incorporates a wide variety of plants with biological and medical applications such as the aromatic spices thyme, mint, oregano, basil, sage, savory, rosemary, self-heal, hyssop, lemon balm, and some others with more limited use (Bekut et al. 2018) [3] . This family is the largest within order Lamiales and has about 236 genus (Harley et al. 2004) [8] classified under 22 tribe and 12 subfamily. Genus Teucrium is the largest genus in tribe Teucrieae Dumort., subfamily Ajudoideae Koste (Zhoa et al. 2021) [19] . Members of this genus is traditionally used in Libya in the treatment of many diseases and illness such as tumor, diabetes, polycystic ovaries, female infertility, hypertension, antipyretic, anti-diarrheal, anthelmintic, oral sanitizer, headache, nausea, antibacterial, insect bites, and antirheumatic. On the basis of the information data gained from the peoples on the local medicinal uses of this genus, this investigation has been done. The aim of this work is to focus on the beneficial uses of the Teucrium species and know if there are any side effects recorded from its use by the peoples in the studied areas. www.extensionjournal.com

Study area

Libya occupies a part of northern Africa from 20 to 34° N and 10 to 25° E. It is bounded from the east by Egypt, from the west by Tunisia and Algeria the Mediterranean sea, in the north, and in the south by Sudan, Chad and Niger (Map 1) (El-Tantawi 2005) [6] . In Libya about 94 to 96% of the land is desert and it is one of the driest countries in the world (Holdridge 1974) [10] . Landforms of Libya generally consist of barren plains in the north against plateaus and depressions in the south, the Mediterranean coast lands and the Sahara desert are the most prominent natural features. Though there are several highlands, no true mountain ranges exist except in southern desert near the Chad border where the Tibesti Massif rises to over 3,000 m asl. The genus is represented by twelve species distributed in the arid Libyan Desert as mentioned in Jafri and El-Gadi (1977) [11] .

Methodology

The work depends on interviews with local peoples in the studied cities, as well as, with owners of shops selling medical herbs and spices (Attar). The local people, as well as the owner shops, cannot differentiate between the different species and they call all the species by the same name Jadah. For that they showed series of each species image to differentiate between the types of species they used. The different species were collected and photographed from the field trips carried by both A.A.Asker and S.A.Mohamed and identified by the aid of the local flora and experts in Omar EL-Mukhtar University herbarium, Elbeyda, Libya and shown in plate 1. The data collected refer only to those described by informants who claimed to know the Teucrium species used in traditional medicine and its applications.

Materials and methods

Field survey was carried out over the period of two years i.e., April 2018 -April 2020 through interviews with 70 shops selling medicinal plants (Attar in Arabic) found in several cities and villages in eastern Libya, which is Benghazi, Tocra, Al-abyar Al-Marj, Elbaida, and Ajdabya. As well as questionnaires were done to seventy eight interviews; male and female; in these areas to understand the traditional use of the (Jadah) common name of the genus Teucrium. Most of the people were acquired only the bases of reading and writing (32 did not receive any education). Specific questions focused on the different ethnobotanical uses traditionally practiced in their area. The data of the different species of Teucrium collected through field trips shown in table (1). The data obtained from interviewed 78 informants, divided into 38 women (35-75 years old) and 40 men (37-80 years old). The interview sought information about the local uses of Teucrium and the plant part used in preparation and which disease treatment citations. The interviews were conducted individually as possible, but sometimes relatives, onlookers and secondary participants were present. The average duration of the interviews was from half an hour to an hour. Ethnomedicinal data was evaluated using the following analyses.

Quantitative ethnobotanical data analysis Relative frequency of citations (RFC)

This is the fraction of informants that recognized a given plant in local folk medicine. The relative frequency of citations (RFC) was used to evaluate the relative importance of plant species by the following formula (Shaheen et al. 2017) [17] .

RFC= FC/N

Where, FC is the number of informants reporting the use of a particular species and N is the total number of informants.

The use value (UV) was calculated to measure the www.extensionjournal.com importance of individual plant species by using the following formula (Rokaya et al. 2010) [16] .

UV=Usage Value (∑Ui)/N

Where Ui is the number of peoples uses and N= total number of peoples in this investigation, the value will be ranged from 0 -1.

Informants Agreement Ratio (IAR) is used to quantify the importance of plants for which there is uses on more than one medicinal treatment. Thus, a plant with a high number of citations in more than one use category may rank higher than plants with more citations in any single category. IAR was calculated as follows (Vandebroek 2010) [18] . IAR = (Nr -Na) / (Nr -1)

Where Nr is the total number of use citations for a given species across all therapeutic categories and Na is the number of cited therapeutic categories

Results and Discussion

Pardo-de-Santayana and Macía (2015) [13] indicated to the importance of understanding the ethnootanical methods and innovations not only for recording the uses of the ancient peoples to the plants but also to improve human life conditions. Medicinal plants are widely distributed in most countries; especially the Arabic peninsula, Asia, Sinai and Mediterranean countries. Bedouins are expert in using herbal medicine in curing many diseases. They use them as drinks, or chewed fresh or dry raw materials. Also they use some herbs externally to cure dermal diseases, either viral or bacterial infections, insects or animal bites or burns. Gras et al. (2021) [7] reported the most important families in ethnobotanical uses are Asteraceae (52), Fabaceae (30) and Lamiaceae (25). Genus Teucrium is rich in bioactive compounds (Asker 2015) [2] . Peoples in Libya use some Teucrium species as spices in cooking, drinking the water extract as teas and added the leaves in other drinks. Asker (2015) [2] found that the Libyan species of the genus Teucrium are very rich in secondary metabolites with high significant biological activities. In the local folk herbal medicine, Teucrium species are used in the treatment of many digestive and respiratory disorders, abscesses, gout, and conjunctivitis. Worldwide the different species of the genus used as anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, anti-cancer, anti-microbial, anti-diabetic, and anti-helminthic (Jaric et al. 2020) [12] . The elderly interviewers were more acquainted in the recognition and usage of the plant species. This observation has been noticed by Doyle et al. (2017) [4] who reported a significant correlation between the age and knowledge of the herbal medicine. In the interviews, photographs of the different species have been shown to each one to recognize the species used. In the same time herbarium specimens of the plants is shown to them to facilitate their identification and give precise use for each species. The data obtained from the interviewers coincide with that obtained from the Attar shops. The most popular species in Libya is T. pollium, as most of the interviewers recognized it and used in a variety of treatments. This species is also used as folk medicinal herb in many countries as mentioned by Doyle et al. (2017) [4] and Jaric et al. (2020) [12] . This species, with its different morphological variations, has the greatest number of Usage Value (UV) and Informant Agreement ratio (IAR). The local use of this species is very wide, they use the hot drink of the aerial parts in the treatment of the gastrointestinal pains, cold, antiinflammatory, anti-bacterial, cancer treatment, kidney stones, and pain of the menstrual cycle and as anti-oxidant. They also drink the boiled leaves in headache and stomach pain. This species has been recorded as important medicinal herb from more two hundred years in Libya (Abdollahi et al. 2003) [1] . In this work seventy-eight interviews with adult informants; over 35 y.; conducted with 55 males and 21 females. As well as seventy shops selling spices and medicinal plants (Attar) were subjected in this work. Most of the peoples could not differentiate between the species and give all of them the name Jaddah (vernacular name of Teucrium). They differentiate the species by their leaves and flowers only. For that we have to show the peoples the photographs of the different species for accuracy as shown in photos. 1-12. In order to facilitate the interpretation of the data, the use citation of each species were grouped in six categories as listed in table 2. The plant parts used in the treatments are mostly the leaves and aerial shoots, that they cut it and boiled and drink it as tea drink. For skin treatments and injuries the leaf extracts were used as poultice and cover the skin, for respiratory ailments they use the hot leaf extracts for inhaling as water bath, or the boiled leaves as tea drink. In using Teucrium leaves in the treatment of diabetic peoples, they used to drink a cup of boiled leaves of T.pollium before eating three times daily. The most cited uses were the gastrointestinal complaints, then respiratory ailments and kidney stones. The most used species is T.pollium, the two forms and subspecies, in which the usage value is over 90%. Then T. zanonii (UV= 56%) and T.apollinis (UV= 54%). The IAR was greatest in T. pollium which used in the treatment in most of the illness groups between the interviewers and shop sellers, then T. fruticans. The local use of Teucrium species in weight control did not report within the interviewers. The participants in this work were 78 informants, divided into 38 women (35-75 years old) and 40 men (37-80 years old), beside 70 Attar shop. The interview sought information about the local uses of the different taxa of Teucrium and the plant part used preparation and disease citations. There were no confusions in the knowledge of both men and women. Meanwhile the owners of the herbal medicine shops agree with the information taken from the participants. Elderly people, over 60 y, have more accurate uses of the plants than the young ones; they can chew the aerial parts in their treatments. For that we concentrate on the old Bedouins to know how they used each species in treating their illness (Tables 2 &3). The information taken from the peoples in Al-Abyar city were restricted to certain ailments like kidney stones, managing urine, cold, headache and improving the digestive process. While peoples living in the mountain region; starting from Tokara and Al-Marj to Al-Bayda; have more information about the uses of the different species and give more precise description of the treatment. Cancer treatment is only mentioned in Tokara. The difference between the studied cities and areas in Libya reflect the large amount and cultural heritage between successive generations. Worth mentioned that most of the sellers in the Attar shops cannot accurately differentiate between the forms and species of T. polium and they call all the three taxa as Jaddah. This also noticed between the younger interviewers this beside that some peoples inherited the knowledge from their parents as it is and this needs conducting courses for employees and shop owners by universities and scientific centers on how to use the herbal medicine to avoid any side effects from their excess usage. www.extensionjournal.com

References

1. Abdollahi M, Karimpour H, Monsef-Esfehani HR. Anti-nociceptive effects ofTeucrium polium L. total extract and essential oil in mouse writhing test. Pharmacological Research. 2003;48(1):31-35.
2. Bekut M, Brkić S, Kladar N, Dragović G, Gavarić N, Božin B. Potential of selected Lamiaceae plants in www.extensionjournal.com anti(retro)viral therapy. Pharmacol Res. 2018;133:301314. doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2017.12.016.
3. Doyle BJ, Asiala CM, Fernand DM. Relative Importance and Knowledge Distribution of Medicinal Plants in a Kichwa Community in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Ethnobiology Letters, 2017;8(1):1-14.
4. Ekor M. The growing use of herbal medicines: issues relating to adverse reactions and challenges in monitoring safety. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 2014;4:1-10.
5. El Tantawi AM. Climate Change in Libya and Desertification of Jifara Plain Using Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing Techniques. P.hd. Gutenberg -University, 2005, 261-264.
6. Gras A, Hidalgo O, D`Ambrose U, Parada M, Garnatje T, Valles J. The Role of Botanical Families in Medicinal Ethnobotany: A Phylogenetic Perspective. Plants, 2021;10(163):1-17.
7. Harley RM, Atkins S, Budantsev AL, Canino PD, Conn BJ, Grayer R, et al. "Labiatae," In: Kadereit JW (ed) Flowering Plants, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2004, 167-275.
8. Hoareau L, DaSilva EJ. Medicinal Plants: a reemerging health aid. EJB Electronic Journal of Biotechnology. 1999;2(2):3-4. ISSN: 0717-3458.
9. Holdridge LR. Determination of world plant formations from simple climatic data. Science. 1974;105(2727):367-368.
10. Jarić S, Mitrović M, Pavlović P. Ethnobotanical Features of Teucrium Species. In: Stanković M (ed.), Teucrium Species: Biology and Applications, 2020, 111-142.
11. Pardo-de-Santayana M, Macía MJ. The benefits of traditional knowledge. Nature. 2015;518:487-488.
12. Phumthum M, Balslev D, Barfod AS. Important Medicinal Plant Families in Thailand. Frontier in Pharmacology. 10 article. 2019;10(1125):1-14.
13. Posadzki P, Watson LK, Ernst E.A dverse effects of herbal medicine: an overview of systematic reviews'. Clinical Medicine London. 2013;13(1):7-12.
14. Rokaya MB, Münzbergová Z, Timsina B. Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants from the Humla district of western Nepal. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2010;130(3):485-504.
15. Shaheen H, Qaseem MF, Amjad MS, Bruschi P. Exploration of ethno-medicinal knowledge among rural communities of Pearl Valley; Rawalakot, District Poonch Azad Jammu and Kashmir. PloS One. 2017;12(9):e0183956.
16. Vandebroek I. The Dual Intracultural and Intercultural Relationship between Medicinal Plant Knowledge and Consensus. Economic Botany. 2010;64(4):303-317. DOI:10.1007/s12231-010-9135-y.
17. Zhao F, Chen YP, Samaki Y, Drew BT, Wilson TC, Scheen AC, et al. An updated tribal classification of Lamiaceae based on plastome phylogenomics. BMC Biology. 2021;19(2):2-27.