Browsing by Author "Amir, Halima Mvungi"

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    Taxonomic study of selected aloe species of Tanzania and the associated indigenous knowledge
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2014) Amir, Halima Mvungi
    To review the taxonomy of Aloe species in Tanzania and establish the associated Indigenous knowledge (IK), phylogenetic analysis of 24 species was carried out using sequences from matK and ITS DNA regions. DNA extraction, Polymerase Chain Reaction and DNA sequencing were carried out using standard procedures. Separate and combined analyses of the data sets were carried out. The phylogeny resulting from matK and ITS were incongruent. However, the phylogeny obtained from combined data sets increased clade resolution and support though phylogenetic relationships of individuals of the same species were not resolved. Also, paraphyletic relationships of individuals of the same species were observed. Although these findings are not conclusive several species that have been recovered by other workers were recovered in the present study. On assessment of usefulness of morphological data to classify Aloe species and influence of similarity indices cluster analysis indicated that, it is possible to classify Aloe species using morphological data. However similarity indices influenced the clustering pattern. Data on IK were collected using semi-structured interviews from 180 respondents of different sex and age. The results indicated that, of the 37 different uses of Aloe species mentioned, the major use was human medicine (73%) and the most frequently mentioned ailment treated was Malaria (11%). Leaves were the most frequently used part of the plant. It was found that 15-20 age group knew less about Aloe spp. uses than those between 21-45 and above 45 years indicating that IK on Aloe was diminishing with time.