Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used by nomadic peoples in the Algerian steppe
Graphical abstract
Introduction
With more than 3139 species (Quézel and Santa, 1962-63), the Algerian flora is one of the richest of North Africa. Together with its biodiversity richness, Algeria has a long and rich herbal medical tradition (Farid, 2011, Scherrer et al., 2005a, Scherrer et al., 2005b in Boughrara and Belgacem, 2016). In this country, phytotherapy is an integral part of local culture (Bouasla and Bouasla, 2017) that, to a great extent, has not been written down and continues to be transmitted orally between generations (Baba Aissa, 1991, Bouasla and Bouasla, 2017). Herbal medicine in Algeria stems from Arabic-Islamic medicine, which combines Prophetic with Galenic humoral medicine (Greenwood, 1981). It is practiced both by professional herbalists and healers based at urban centres, but also transmitted orally and practiced by the lay population. Since colonial times, biomedicine is also increasingly available and used in Algeria (WHO, 2015).
Phytotherapy in Algeria has been studied since the colonial period (before 1962), including some pioneering studies include Fourmet and Roque (1946). Ethnobotanical studies continued after the independence through the publication of guides and books (Aït Youssef, 2006, Baba Aissa, 1991, Beloued, 1998). Recently, several ethnobotanical research studies have been published with the aim of documenting Algeria's medicinal plant knowledge and use (Benarba et al., 2015, Bouasla and Bouasla, 2017, Boudjelal et al., 2013, Chermat and Gharzouli, 2015, Lakhdari et al., 2016; Meddour and Meddour, 2015; Miara et al., 2013; Ouelbani et al., 2016; Rebbas et al., 2012). However, many geographical regions and ethnic communities in this country have still not been ethnobotanically explored due to the country's large surface and diversity. Of special interest is the knowledge of nomadic populations, found to maintain specific medicinal beliefs, knowledge, practices in North Africa.
Algerian nomadic communities are thought to have much knowledge and experience regarding medicinal plant use. Among Algerian indigenous communities, nomads practice constant displacement linked to livestock breeding practices. In total, 230,000 nomads are estimated to live in Algeria (NOH, 2008), including people from the two main nomadic communities: Tuareg populations in the Sahara, and Arabic-speaking nomads in the steppe highlands (Guillermou, 1990). These Arabic-speaking nomads live in the semi-arid steppe regions lying between the Algerian Tell Atlas and the Saharan Atlas. This biogeographic portion constitutes the high steppe plains of Algeria characterized by large areas of herbaceous and shrubby plants for pastoral grazing (Fig. 1). The steppe vegetation is dominated by alfa (Stipa tenacissima L.) occupying four million hectares, and chih (Artemisia herba-alba Asso) with three million hectares, followed by sennagh (Lygeum spartum L.) and guettaf (Atriplex halimus L.), which grow together in one to two million hectares. The rest is occupied by various vegetation associations (Aristida pungens Desf., Thymelaea microphylla Coss. & Durieu ex Meisn., Retama raetam (Forssk.) Webb, Artemisia campestris L., Arthrophytum scoparium (Pomel) Iljin ex Emb. & Maire and Peganum harmala L.; Nedjimi and Guit, 2012).
Nomadic steppe populations are pastoralist herders that practice both nomadism, which implies the displacement of the whole family, as well as transhumance, which concerns only the shepherd and his flock. Nomadism in the Algerian steppe highlands is based on a rational management of space and time through two essential movements: the achaba consists in taking the herds to the Tellian zones (Tell Atlas) during the three to four months of summer, and the azzaba is the movement of pastoralists and their livestock to the northern foothills of the Saharan Atlas during three months of winter (Nedjraoui, 2003). These livelihoods are adapted to arid environments and help maintain the production of ecosystems vulnerable to drought (Baumann, 2009). These particular movements have leaded these communities to acquire utilitarian knowledge about diverse steppe vegetation, notably the pre-forest formations of the Tell as well as the steppe and halophile vegetation of these regions.
These nomad communities often need to be self-sufficient for food as well as human and veterinary health care. No herbalists or professional healers are found among these communities, but lay people acquire knowledge on herbal medicine in informal ways throughout their life. In case of emergency, nomads take their sick to the closest public health centre or hospital, which may be several hours away from the camp. Nomadic communities also rely on plant diversity and production as fodder for their herds, and their movements depend on fodder plant availability. This inextricable dependence to the vegetable world makes knowledge of plants and their uses crucial to the nomadic community's livelihoods. Currently, trends of sedentarisation have significantly reduced the number of nomads in Algeria (Belloum and Dekhil, 1993). In North Africa, it has been shown that this phenomenon involves the loss of ethnobotanical knowledge (Blanco and Carrière, 2016, Volpato and Waldstein, 2014). Thus, urgent action is needed to maintain biocultural diversity threatened with extinction if nomadic livelihoods disappear.
This study does not only strive to document medicinal plant diversity used by the nomadic Arab-speaking community of the Algerian steppe, but also to compare their knowledge to that of sedentarised communities and Mediterranean materia medica. Through this comparison, we identify new plants and medicinal uses, and we enquire about processes of transmission of knowledge about medicinal plants in nomadic communities. Leonti et al. (2009) observed that herbal practices in southern Italy were strikingly similar to Dioscorides de materia medica. In China, the distribution of medicinal plant books among rural populations resulted in medicinal plant knowledge in rural areas being strongly influenced by mainstream Chinese medicine (Weckerle et al., 2009). Leonti (2011) argued that written texts including historical materia medica, popular books on plat use, and other written sources, condition oral ethnobotanical knowledge and render ethnopharmacologaical practices more conservative. Nonetheless, when comparing herbal medicine across six Mediterranean countries, González-Tejero et al. (2008) did not found a common ethnobotanical heritage throughout the basin. In this study, we want to test if the medicinal flora of the Algerian steppe nomads is different to those of neighbouring sedentary populations, and to evaluate to what extent elements written in historical Mediterranean medical texts can be identified. We hypothesise that, due to their particular livelihoods, their high dependence on the steppe environment for plant resources, and high illiteracy rates, nomads’ medicinal plants and uses will be specific to this community and different to those cited in historical texts. To the best of our knowledge, no study has been carried out so far about the herbal medicine of this community.
Section snippets
Study area
With an estimated area of about 20 million hectares, the Algerian steppes constitute a geographical unit whose limits are defined by a bioclimatic criterion. They are located between the isohyets 400 mm to the North and 100 mm to the South, forming a 1000 km long ribbon over a width of 300 km in the west and in the centre, reduced to less than 150 km in the East (Halem, 1997). The steppes cover the area between the southern limit of the Tellian Atlas to the north, and that of the southern
Results and discussion
Nomadic populations in the Algerian steppe harvest medicinal plants during their displacements between camps and from around the camps, and acquire other species in the souk. They keep these medicinal plants dry to be used when necessary. Ninety-seven medicinal species were identified in our survey (Supplementary File 1), including 94 plant and three fungi species.
Conclusion
This study is the first attempt to document the phytotherapeutic practices of the nomadic community in the Algerian steppe. These nomads are indigenous populations living in constant contact with nature, and use plants in their environment, as well as traded species, to treat various diseases and health problems. Rich and valuable new information was gathered in study: some medicinal plant uses are particular to the Algerian steppe and have been documented for the first time as use by the
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the nomads of the regions of Tiaret, Saida, Naama, Djelfa and M'sila for their time and for agreeing to share their knowledge and practices. We would also like to thank the team of the High Commission for the Development of the Steppe (HCDS) of the wilayas where the work was conducted for providing their support in finding and accessing nomadic communities. We would like to express our gratitude to the three anonymous reviewers whose comments contributed to
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Author contributions
The contributions of the respective authors are as follows: M. D. Miara ([email protected]) designed the study, contributed to the ethnobotanical survey, plant identification, data analysis and wrote the manuscript; H. Bendif ([email protected]) contributed to the ethnobotanical survey; M. Ait Hammou ([email protected]) contributed to the botanical identification; Irene Teixidor-Toneu ([email protected]) contributed to data
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Current address: Department of Biology, Faculty SNV, University Ibn Khaldoun, Tiaret 14000, Algeria.