Traditional knowledge and phytochemical screening of plants used in snakebite prevention in Benin

Background Snake envenomation is a public health problem that has caused many deaths, disabilities and significant physical, psychological and socio-economic losses worldwide. In many rural communities, some plants have been utilized for preventing snake envenomation. The present study aims to document the knowledge of traditional medicine specialists on the plants used to prevent snakebites or repel snakes in Benin. A survey was conducted between January 2020 and September 2020 to this end. A total of 238 traditional healers and 56 hunters of different socio-cultural groups were interviewed using snowball sampling technique. Survey data were analyzed using Relative Citation Frequency. The diversity of antisnake bite plants was assessed using the Shannon diversity index, Piélou equitability, the Bray–Curtis similarity index and a Factorial Correspondence Analysis. Finally, qualitative phytochemical screening was performed on aqueous extracts following standard methods based on staining and/or precipitation reactions. Results A total of 74 plant species belonging to 36 families and 70 genera were identified. The most frequently encountered families were Leguminosae (27.3%), Euphorbiaceae (8.1%), Arecaceae, Asteraceae and Cucurbitaceae (4.5% each). Annona senegalensis, Securidaca longipedunculata, Piliostigma thonningii, Chenopodium ambrosioides and Cymbopogon citratus were the most cited species. The analysis of the intra-community diversity of antisnake bite plants from socio-cultural and sociolinguistic groups showed a high diversity and strong equi-representativeness of the plants used in the prevention of snakebites in Benin. Preliminary qualitative analysis of the bioactive compounds in extracts of the most cited antisnake bite plants revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponosides, mucilages, reducing compounds and triterpenoids. Conclusions In-depth pharmacological and phytochemical studies would make it possible to rationalize on the effectiveness of the identified medicinal plants as well as provide insights of the compounds responsible for their antisnake bite activity.