Ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make of use of indigenous plants. Ethnobotany is one of the six research clusters funded by VicRes. The
Cluster aim to reliably document, describe and explain complex relationships between cultures and uses of plants i.e. how plants are used, managed and perceived across human societies for foods, medicines, divination, cosmetics, dyeing and textiles, construction, rituals etc for wealth creation of the communities in Lake Victoria Basin.
On going projects
Currently the cluster has 25 projects focusing on
- herbal medicines,
- food and nutrition security,
- value addition and wealth creation,
- sustainable crop protection practices and conservation.
The projects have identified indigenous plants and their uses, edible insects, insect pests and pathogens. Selected African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) have also been conserved, multiplied and technical production protocols developed. The cluster has evaluated the potential for domestication of medicinal plants and some wild mushrooms and determined the nutrition status and dietary adequacies. Technologies for value addition have been identified, developed and tested on indigenous foods. The cluster has been able to identify, classify and document 326 medicinal plant species, 52 African indigenous vegetables, 34 edible mushrooms, seven types of edible insects and 79 biopesticide plants.
The cluster has developed several products including skin ointment product, quality seed of AIVs and AIVs high iron recipes as capital ventures that can be undertaken immediately. The cluster has also published extensively in scientific journals and scientific conference proceedings.
For more information contact;
- VicRes Coordinator- coordinator@vicres.net or za2ogutu@yahoo.com
- Cluster Lead Person- Dr. Olila – olilad@vetmed.ak.ac.ug
- Cluster Associate -Dr. Jennifer Orwa- jorwa@kemri.org
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