ANTI-GIARDIAL ACTIVITY OF GASTROINTESTINAL REMEDIES OF THE LUO OF EAST-AFRICA

Activity in an in vitro assay with Giardia lamblia provided a test of the validity of a quantitative methodology used in an ethnobotanical s urvey of the Luo people of the Lake Victoria basin of Kenya and Tanzan ia. Forty-five taxa of remedies for gastrointestinal problems were rep orted by four or more independent informants and a log-linear model wa s used to calculate a statistical measure of informant consensus. Meth anolic extracts of 21 of 36 taxa assayed were lethal or inhibited grow th of Giardia trophozoites at 1000 ppm; 7 species were lethal at 500 p pm. Non-cathartic species are more likely to be active than cathartics . Lethal species of non-cathartics are reported by informants more fre quently than non-lethal species although the lack of statistical signi ficance did not provide satisfactory support for the validity of the q uantitative methodology as a predictor of efficacious remedies.