Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used by the people of Mosop, Nandi County in Kenya

Background: Throughout the history, nature has provided mankind with most of their basic needs, which include food, shelter, medicine, clothes, flavours, scents as well as raw materials. Given that they are an integral part of cultural heritage, medicinal plants have played a significant role in human healthcare systems around the world. Investigating various biological resources for use as medicines requires ethnomedicinal studies.Methods: Data on utilization of ethnomedicinal plants from local healers in Kenya’s Mosop Sub-County in Nandi County was documented through open-ended, semi-structured questionnaires. A number of quantitative indices, such as the Use Citation (UC), Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), Use Value (UV), Frequency of Citation (FoC) and Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) were used to convey the potential medical benefits, vitality and variety of the ethnomedicine.Results: 102 informants provided information on 253 ethnomedicinal plant species, classified into 74 families. There were 249 native plant species identified, along with few exotic species: Senegalia senegal (L.) Britton, Persea americana Mill, Carica papaya L. and Solanum betaceum Cav. Of all recorded species, 32% and 27% were herbs and trees, respectively. Among plant parts, leaves were most frequently utilized (27%) and roots (26%), while decoctions (21%) were the most widely used formulations. The dominant family was Asteraceae, with 28 species, followed by Lamiaceae, with 19 species. The highest ICF value was 0.778 for a number of parasitic and infectious illnesses, including ringworms, athlete’s foot rot, tetanus, typhoid, intestinal parasites, abscesses, malaria, and amoebiasis. The study’s data validates the region’s widespread use of traditional medicinal plant remedies.Conclusion: The current study will lay a foundation of knowledge for future research investigations. The abundance of knowledge regarding ethnomedicinal species and their medicinal applications will stimulate further phytochemical and pharmacological research, which could lead to the discovery of potentially significant pharmaceuticals

Susceptibility of geographically isolated populations of the Tomato red spider mite (Tetranychus evansi Baker & Pritchard) to commonly used acaricides on tomato crops in Kenya

Farmers in Kenya continue to raise concerns of difficulty in managing <em>Tetranychus evansi</em>, the most widespread pest species of tomato applying the most commonly used acaricides. This invasive pest species is not only found in Kenya, but in Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as parts of Europe and Asia. In the current study, populations of <em>T. evansi</em> were collected from farms in the four major tomato-growing areas of Kenya (Loitoktok, Kibwezi, Athi-River and Subukia) and their susceptibility compared to a laboratory culture (ICIPE) that had been maintained for three years without exposure to acaricides. Susceptibility of <em>T. evansi</em> eggs and adults (contact and residual) to Brigade (bifenthrin), Dimethoate (dimethoate), Karate (lambdacyhalothrin), Kelthane (dicofol), Omite (propargite) and Polytrin (profenofos+ cypermethrin) was tested in the laboratory using respective manufacturer’s recommended concentrations. Dimethoate resulted in variable ovicidal mortality while Kelthane, Brigade, Karate, Omite and Polytrin had high mortality across all populations. Similarly, adult contact and residual mortality was lower than that of the other chemicals when exposed to Dimethoate regardless of the location. Furthermore, it also had no residual effect on the mites from ICIPE and Kibwezi. On the other hand, Kelthane was most lethal against the mites from all locations followed by Brigade and Polytrin in that order. Omite caused significantly lower mortality on mites from Subukia while Karate produced variable effects on mites from Kibwezi, Loitoktok and Subukia. The implications of these findings are further discussed