ANTIMALARIAL MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY TRADITIONAL HEALERS IN BENGKULU PROVINCE OF INDONESIA

Malaria, a disease with a high mortality rate, is still a significant problem globally, including Indonesia. Bengkulu Province is among provinces in Indonesia that uses a diversity of medicinal plants to treat malaria. This research aimed to make an inventory of medicinal plants and to evaluate the use of those medicinal plants to treat malaria in Bengkulu Province. The methods used were observation, interviews, and collection of plants samples. Respondents consisted of traditional healers from 7 ethnic groups in Bengkulu. Several analyses were conducted on plant species, such as use value (UV), fidelity level (FL), family use value (FUV), relative frequency of citation (RFC), and plant parts value (PPV). This study found 32 specific herbal concoctions and identified the use of 47 medicinal plant species belong to 29 families used by 20 traditional healers in 6 of 7 ethnic groups. Carica papaya, Peronema canescens, and Tinospora crispa had the highest use value, fidelity level, and relative citation frequency. The Lamiaceae and Caricaceae families had the highest family use value (0.15). The leaves (43.9%) and barks (13.6%) were the most frequent used parts of medicinal plants for treating malaria. Decoction was the method most widely used by traditional healers in Bengkulu to prepare conventional medicine formula.