Evaluation Des Conditions De Traitement Et De Stockage Des Plantes Médicinales Sur Les Marchés Du District d’Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire)

Abstract

The present study was carried out to inventory medicinal plants storage conditions on the markets of Abidjan district. A survey was conducted from August to October 2015 in three settings of the district of Abidjan (Abobo, Adjame and Yopougon). A total of 350 sellers of medicinal plants were interrogated using semi-structured interviews. The respondents were predominantly female (98.9%), aged between 30 and 60 years. The supply of medicinal plants in the markets was done by the wholesalers (86%) who themselves harvested plants in different forests or savanah of Côte d’Ivoire. The majority of sellers (73%) did not apply any measure of hygiene in storage. These people in 99.4% of case were not trained on good storage practices. Sale places were accessible to rodents and exposed to dust caused by traffic jamp. The presence of mud (9.1%) and garbage (23.1%) was noted in the immediate surrounding of the displays. These practices of processing and storage of medicinal plants were similar in all the visited settings. These storage conditions may constitute a hazardous risk for the consumer and justify the degradation of medicinal plants on the markets.