Medicinal uses of local flora in the municipalities of Dombe Grande and Balombo, Benguela Province, Angola

Africa is rich in natural resources and possesses a deep understanding of the uses and properties of plants, particularly in rural areas [ 1 ]. Traditional Medicine (TM) of African people is based on the heritage of knowledge about ethnopharmacology. However, many medicinal uses of plants are yet to be validated, which opens many prospects for the discovery of new active principles, novel drugs or nutraceutical compounds [ 2 ]. Regarding Traditional Medicine Practitioners (TMP) and TM, Angola remains largely unstudied, thus offering a unique opportunity to discover previously unreported medicinal plants (MP) [ 3 ]. The main objective of this study was to document the medicinal uses of local flora in the municipalities of Dombe Grande (DG) and Balombo in the Benguela province of Angola. Given their very different edaphoclimatic characteristics and ethnolinguistic populations, we expected to find differences between them, enhancing the possibility to catalogue a greater variety of plant species [ 4 ]. An ethnobotanical survey was conducted in the two municipalities in 2024, in which TM practitioners were asked to answer a semi-structured questionnaire about the TM practices, diseases treated and plants used. A total of 124 species reported by the local TMP’s were identified, 100 in Balombo and 24 in DG. The most widely used families were Fabaceae for Balombo and Acanthaceae for DG. The most common preparation methods were infusions and the main administration mode was ingestion. After applying the ICPC code classification to the reported diseases, it was found that the most common ailments fell under categories A (general and unspecific) and D (digestive). Acknowledgements This work was supported by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC): CIMO, UIDB/00690/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDB/00690/2020) and UIDP/00690/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDP/00690/2020); and SusTEC, LA/P/0007/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/LA/P/0007/2020). Publication History Article published online: 05 March 2026 © 2026. Thieme. All rights reserved. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany