Medicinal plants used in the traditional management of infectious respiratory diseases in Burkina Faso and Cameroon over a twenty-five-year period (1999–2023): A review

The botanical, cultural, and climatic diversities in Burkina Faso and Cameroon provide a wide range of empirical knowledge, for the treatment of infectious respiratory ailments in traditional medicine. However, many medicinal plant species remain scientifically poorly known, and need further detailed investigations to confirm their traditional use. To contribute to this process, literature research on important Burkinabè and Cameroonian medicinal plants is presented in this review. The data were collected from different published research papers obtained from research engines such as Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, Mendeley, and other related websites. The important search terminologies included ethnobotany, respiratory diseases, medicinal plants, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. The literature used for this review were: the plant family, scientific name, author citation, vernacular names, part(s) used, preparation method(s), administration route, traditional uses, morphology, and plant geolocalisation. A total of 72 scientific recent articles (from January 1999 to December 2023) and 26 ethnobotanical database publications were consulted, providing complete information on the medicinal plant species used for the treatment of respiratory diseases in Burkina Faso and Cameroon. Based on this, a total of 65 plant species distributed among 38 families were reviewed. The commonly recorded families used to manage respiratory problems were Fabaceae (15.38 %) and Annonaceae (9.23 %). Trees (46.61 %), herbs (23.07 %) and shrubs (23.07 %) were the dominant plant growth forms. Leaves (31.26 %) and stem-barks (25.70 %) were the most commonly cited parts of the plants because they are the easiest to prepare. Most of the plant preparations were taken orally (54.54 %) as a decoction (45.38 %). Treatments generally involved a single plant but some plant mixtures were also used. Other ingredients such as olive juice, rock salt, and honey were sometimes added to the preparations to facilitate their ingestion or potentialize the recipes. According to the literature, these plants also showed efficacy in the treatment of oxidative stress and inflammation-related pathologies. The review allowed the identification of some plant species which are endemic to Burkina Faso and Cameroon, and therefore the traditional knowledge will guide future research on the common plant remedies against infectious respiratory disorders.