Exploring the Ethnopharmaceutical Plants of Osing Tribe in Banyuwangi Regency: Potential Application for COVID-19 Therapy

Abstract

Ethnopharmacy is the study on herbs or plants that certain ethnic groups practice for treating particular illness. Scientific reporting of beneficial therapeutic plants through this study could promote further development of herbal medicines. We conducted an ethnopharmacy study at several villages of Osing tribe located in Banyuwangi, Indonesia, to identify plants that have the potential to be tested for certain bioactivity, in this case, for COVID-19 therapy. The snowball and purposive sampling methods using qualitative and quantitative research with semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were applied for this study. The parameters used were the Use Value (UV), Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), and Fidelity Level (FL). The plants used in this study were obtained and determined at Balai Konservasi Tumbuhan Kebun Raya Purwodadi, the Indonesian Institute of Science. The results were then followed by the literature study on the plants’ potential for COVID-19 therapy. Plant exploration was obtained by considering the results of UV calculation. Based on UV calculations in ethnopharmacy studies, there are several plants that are considered essential and have more efficacies. They are temulawak, turmeric, suruh, Exploring the Ethnopharmaceutical Plants of Osing Tribe in Banyuwangi Regency: Potential Application for COVID-19 Therapy 114 gigen-gigen, mating, anggrek merpati and pace. Three of the eight plants potentially possess immunomodulatory activity that can be used to prevent the infections of SARS-CoV-2. They are the temulawak (Curcuma xanthorrhiza), turmeric (Curcuma domestica) and gigen-gigen (Centella asiatica).