Study area
The current study was conducted out in the Rif region. It extends between 34 and 36° of latitude in the North and 4 to 6° of longitude in the East. It is bounded in the North by the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea, in the South by the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region and Fez-Meknes region, in the East by the Eastern Region, and in the West by the Atlantic Ocean (Fig. 1). The total geographical area of the Rif is 11,570 km2, and the population of the city is about 3,549,512 inhabitants with an average population density of 222.2/km2 [3]. The Rif is marked by Mediterranean weather with the highest temperature up to 45 °C during summer (July–August) and below 0 °C during winter (December–January), and the average annual rainfall ranges from 700 to 1300 mm which falls mainly between October and February [4]. The area is dominated by species such as Abies marocana Trab., Pinus halepensis Mill., Cannabis sativa L., and Cedrus atlantica (Endl.). The population is mixed between Arabic and Amazigh ethnicity. Principally, families of this region are very much dependent on subsistence farming, livestock, and, to a more secondary space, forest resources for their livelihood.
Methodology
Ethnobotanical data collection
To document an indigenous anticystitis plant ancestral knowledge and discover the level of utilization of traditional medicinal plants for prevention and therapy of cystitis by the local people (Fig. 2) (412 males and 245 females) from different rural and urban communes of the Rif region, namely, S1: Al Hoceim (30), S2: Ajdir (20), S3: Izefzafen (15), S4: Bni Hadifa (15), S5: Targuist (25), S6: Tizi n Tchin (22), S7: Issaguen (30), S8: Bab Berred (30), S9: Cherrafate (30), S10: Bab Taza (20), S11: Derdara (10), S12: Chefchaouen (30), S13: Akchour (30), S14: Fifi (30), S15: Tétouan (30), S16: Bni Karrich (30), S17: Mallalyène (15), S18: Zinat (30), S19: Martil (20), S20: Md’q (20), S21: Fnideq (20), S22: Belyounich (30), S23: Melloussa (30), S24: Ksar Esghir (25), S25: Bni Ouassin (15), S26: Tanger (30), S27: Al Bahraouiyne (15), and S28: Jouamaa (10), a semi-structured questionnaire was prepared, and data were collected through face-to-face interviews over a period between March 1, 2015, and April 15, 2017.
The information collected during this study includes the sociodemographic characteristics of the surveyed (age, gender, level academic) and ethnobotanical data, including the local and scientific name of the species, local names, plant parts used, methods of use, preservation technique, administration mode, and toxicity (Appendix). Interviews were generally carried in the local language (Arab dialect and Tamazight); all documented data were then translated to English.
Taxonomic nomenclature of the plant species
Medicinal species being mentioned by the informants were registered with local names and photographed. For each reported plant species, the plant species were accumulated and classified, and voucher specimens were archived. The identification and nomenclature of the collected vegetal material were done first in the field and completed at the Plant, Animal Productions and Agro-industry Laboratory by one of the authors using some floristic literatures as well as The medicinal plants of Morocco [5]; Practical Flora of Morocco; tomes I, II, and III [6,7,8]; and Catalogs of vascular plants of northern Morocco, including identification keys and tomes I and II [9]. Taxonomy and denominations of species were validated using “The Plant List 2020” database (http://www.theplantlist.org). Voucher specimens have been kept at our university, for future reference.
Statistical analysis
The data collected from the field and obtained from the local people were organized and studied with the statistical program IBM SPSS Statistics 21 Premium (SPSS 2019), to determine the proportions of various variable sociodemographics of the interviewees and ethnobotanical data. Quantitative value records were also determined for the general practices of these medicinal plants using the use reports (UR) and medicinal use value (MUV).
Use reports (UR)
The use reports (UR) of a plant or its significance in the practice of a community is recognized by its mentioning degree or its mention frequency by informants. It was determined by the formula [10]:\( \mathrm{UR}=\frac{N_i}{n} \) where Ni is the sum of the informant who cited the species and n is the entire of respondents interviewed.
Medicinal use value (MUV)
The MUV of documented therapeutic plants was defined by using this formula [11]: \( \mathrm{MUV}=\frac{\sum {UR}_i}{N} \) where∑URi is the total sum of use reports per plants and N is the total of interviewees interrogated for given medicinal species. The MUV rate will be more significant if there are several useful reports for a species, indicating that the plant is significant, whereas they will be near 0 if there are few reports compared to its use [12].