The knowledge of medicinal plants in Africa today

The oral tradition for communication in Africa is stressed as well as the secrecy of the treatments with plants by traditional medicine-men. This makes it difficult to obtain more exact information on all the different aspects of traditional medicine. Nevertheless, some data have been collected in the Francophone countries. In English-speaking Africa efforts to gather information have also been made and a number of valuable reports and books published. A number of books report our present knowledge in the African regions south of the equator, mainly in Zambia.