Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants from Mangrove Forests in North Sumatra, Indonesia
1Onrizal, 2Mashhor Mansor
1Forestry Sciences Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Sumatera Utara
2School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia
The conservation of ethnomedicinal plants of mangrove forests in North Sumatra is reported. Ethnobotanical data were obtained by using semi-structured interviews and field observations. Four field sites namely (1) Kuala Serapuh-Kuala Gebang, (2) Jaring Halus, (3) Pulau Sembilan and (4) Bandar Khalifah were selected. Traditional medicine practitioners in four field sites were interview. Forty eight plant species of mangrove plants belonging to 23 families was identified in the four sites. The mangrove plants consist of 29 species of true mangroves and 19 species of mangrove associate. Based on our observation there are several local communities that commonly use nine mangrove plants, i.e. Acanthus illicifolius, Avicennia alba, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, Excoecaria agallocha, Rhizophora apiculata, Nypa fruticans, Sonneratia alba and Xylocarpus granatum for curing various diseases. Indigenous knowledge of mangrove plants as medicinal material was relative different between field sites where Jaring Halus community was the highest users of mangrove plants (7 species) and followed by Serapuh community (3 species) and Banda Khalifah community (1 species). No mangrove plant is used as a medicinal plant by the Pulau Sembilan community. The decreasing population of mangrove plant community is due to widely destruction of mangrove sites. Apparently with this massive destruction, several species of medicinal plants are destroyed. Therefore this result can be used as a basis for developing management plans for conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants in the area.
Keywords: mangrove plants, enthnobotany, medicinal plants, North Sumatra
Onrizal 
