JOSUGA: JOS JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES

This study explores the ethnobotanical knowledge of the Benkinda community, with a focus on the use of plants for medicine, food, cultural and religious practices, and their heritage significance. Data was collected through oral interviews with traditional healers, elderly farmers, and women, complemented by botanical identification of species of plants. Findings reveal that plants play a vital role in health care and survival strategies. Species such as Ahin-ten, Ahin-dashe, Ahin-sen, and Atswi Mbenu are widely used in treating ailments like sore throat, ulcer, stomach pain, and typhoid. Food crops such as yams, maize, groundnut, benniseed, and locust beans also hold medicinal and cultural significance. Trees like Parkia biglobosa, Moringa oleifera, Cissus quadrangularis, and Vernonia amygdalina demonstrate the interconnection between health and nutrition. The study highlights how oral traditions sustain plant knowledge, passed across generations, and emphasizes the cultural value of indigenous healing, inadvertently, through plants and their religious significance. This research is relevant as it documents practices at risk of erosion due to modernization, while stressing the importance of conserving plant resources and local knowledge for health security and cultural identity.

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