Medicinal invertebrates used in African traditional medicine: a systematic review

Information on entomotherapy in Africa is fragmented across different countries, resulting in the lack of comprehensive documentation of the diversity of invertebrate species used in traditional medicine. This review systematically searched databases such as Google Scholar, Science Direct and Web of Science for articles published from 2000 to 2026 documenting the medicinal use of invertebrates in Africa. The search resulted in 21 eligible articles that listed 119 invertebrate species from 40 orders, as used in traditional medicine to treat 191 symptoms across 20 Sub-Saharan African countries. The Republic of Benin, South Africa, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso were the leading documented users of medicinal invertebrates. Insects were the most used invertebrate's species, with Bee's species, Apis mellifera treating 35% of the identified symptoms, including wounds, arthritis, cough, stomach aches, and fever. Medicinal material was derived from invertebrate body parts such as the whole body, head, and mandibles. Invertebrates were used at different growth stages, including nymphs, larvae, and adults. Medicinal material used includes termites' nest, mole cricket gut contents, tick blood, and honey. This review indicates rich ethnomedicinal uses of invertebrates in Africa. However, there are limited studies on the topic. Therefore, we recommend more research to document the diversity of medicinal invertebrates, expanding into other African regions for a comprehensive database. Additionally, further studies to investigate the impacts of medicinal invertebrate harvesting, assessing sustainability and conservation. We also call for future studies to isolate the bioactive compounds of these invertebrates to validate their claimed therapeutic use, and to enhance benefit sharing to traditional practitioners.