Medicinal Use of Lepidium sativum and Nigella sativa Seeds in North Shewa Zone, Amhara and Oromia Regions, Ethiopia.

Authors

Daniel Molla Melese, Wondyefraw Mekonen, Abebaye Aragaw

Published in

BioMed research international. Volume 2026. Issue 1. Pages e2989902.

Abstract

Nigella sativa seeds have been used for the treatment of ailments. Lepidium sativum is another spice used in the treatment of asthma, cough, and bleeding piles. Despite their significance, a comprehensive synthesis of their ethnobotanical uses in Ethiopia remains limited. Therefore, this study was designed to carry out an ethnobotanical investigation on L. sativum and N. sativa seeds.
The study was conducted in Debre Berhan, Chacha, and Sheno towns located in the North Shewa Zone of the Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. Semistructured interviews were employed among 65 informants to obtain ethnobotanical data. Data were entered into EpiData Version 3.1, then exported to SPSS Version 26.0 for statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies and percentages, were used to summarize the data. Ethnobotanical indices, including informant consensus factor (ICF) and fidelity level (FL), were calculated using the standard formulas. Associations between categorical and patterns of medicinal seed use were assessed using the Pearson chi-square test. Statistical significance was considered at p value of < 0.05.
A total of 65 individuals participated in the study. The majority of the respondents (93.8%) reported having used these seeds. Among those, 84.6% used both seeds in combination. ICF values ranged from 0.000 to 0.933 across six disease categories. The highest was recorded for digestive problems (ICF = 0.967) and general health (ICF = 0.958), with 31 and 25 use-reports, respectively. The ethnobotanical indices showed a significant preference for the combined use of L. sativum and N. sativa with a frequency of citation (FC) value of 55 and a use value (UV) of 0.846.
In this study, people use L. sativum and N. sativa seeds mostly for digestive problems and general health conditions. Future studies should investigate the phytochemical composition, mechanisms of action, toxicological effects, and clinical relevance of commonly used preparations of L. sativum and N. sativa.

PMID:
42861453
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 12 Oct 2026.

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