Abstract

Traditional herbal medicine has been a constant source of substances for curing and preventing a variety of ailments. This study determined the diversity, distribution of medicinal plants, and evaluated the effects of human activities on their availability in Federal University Dutse (FUD) and Jigawar Tsada community. 60 questionnaires were administered randomly to household respondents in the two study areas and 6 transect lines of 100 x 100m were laid in the areas to examined the distribution and diversity of the medicinal plants. Data collected on DBH were used to compute Stem Volume (SV), Basal Area (BA) and Number of Trees per hectare (NT). Shannon Weiner index was used to assess species diversity. The result showed that seventeen (17) medicinal plants which are distributed in fourteen families were mostly source from wild found in the study area and Fabaceae family was the dominant with 22% while others having 6%. The diversity (Hi) was 2.65. Availability of medicinal plants were highly affected by building and construction at 93% while farming was 7% in Federal University Dutse. However, respondents from Jigawar tsadar reported that 27% of medicinal plants are lost because of building and construction, 33% due to fuelwood collection; 27% due to collections of charcoal; and 13% due to farming. Major anthropogenic factors identified were building and construction; farming practice; and collection for fuelwood. More also, creation of awareness was the best among the conservation types. Therefore, there is need to create awareness on the effect of the over dependence of fuel wood despite the moderate distribution and diversity of the hotspot.