Assessment of the Diversity of Medico-Magic Knowledge on Four Herbaceous Species in Benin

Table 4

Fidelity level (FL%) of recorded diseases, disorders, and magic uses per study species.

Situations types	Plant species and FL (%)
	List of social situations recorded	Phyllanthus amarus Schumach. & Thonn.	Acmella uliginosa (Sw.) Cass.	Momordica charantia L.	Scoparia dulcis L.
Diseases	Diabetes	44	0	39	0
	Infant intelligence stimulation	0	0	0	6
	Malaria	67	0	22	9
	Tiredness of old persons	6	0	0	0
Magic utilization	Spiritual use for luck	0	100	0	86
	Spiritual use to in Vodun^†	0	12	22	0
	Spiritual use for self-protection	0	6	0	0
	Spiritual use for love	0	0	0	3
Infections	Chicken pox	0	0	100	0
	Constipation	33	0	14	0
	Cough	0	0	0	17
	Deworming	6	0	0	0
	Dog bite	0	0	6	0
	Eye infection	0	0	6	0
	Fever	0	0	14	0
	Mouth sore	0	6	0	0
	Measles	0	0	100	0
	Laxative use	0	0	8	0
	Skin infection	0	0	6	0
	Stomach infection	28	0	17	0
	Vaginal infection	0	0	6	0
	Urinary tract infection	0	0	6	0
Disorders	Male aphrodisiac	0	0	0	11
	Female aphrodisiac	0	0	0	11
	Male impotence	0	0	0	6
	Stomachache	33	0	0	0
	Liver disorder	6	0	0	0

^†A West African religion. FL (%) = fidelity level (%). Number of traders = 36 except for S. uliginosa where n = 34.