Background: This study represents the first in-depth ethnobotanical study in the province of Uíge in northern
Angola and documents the traditional knowledge of the Bakongo people living in the area. Due to deforestation
and frequent fires, degraded savannahs dominate the landscape in the study region. Here we provide a list of
useful plants from these savannahs including quantitative data about cultural importance of the respective species,
aiming on the one hand to conserve the local knowledge and on the other hand to create a reliable basis for
research projects in the region.
Methods: Field work was conducted in April and May 2014 in 5 municipalities of Uíge province. The study is based
on 32 semi-structured and free-listing interviews, group discussions of varying scope and 14 field trips, involving a
total of 82 informants. Throughout the course of the study herbarium specimens of the useful species were
collected for later identification. Cultural importance index was applied to analyse the data sets recorded and to
determine the best-known useful species in the region. All data sets were compared to the literature available for
the region.
Results: The study documents a total of 498 citations for the use of 122 plants from 48 families, 34.0 % of which
were unknown according to the literature used for comparison. The high amount (71 %) of medical use-reports
indicates that plants still play a crucial role in rural health care. We identified 14 plant species of special interest for
pharmacological analysis. Species of highest cultural importance are Annona senegalensis Pers. and Sarcocephalus
latifolius (Sm.) E.A., both of which are frequently found in disturbed savannahs.
Conclusions: The study points out the importance of savannahs even if degraded in terms of useful plants and
provides a valuable addition to current knowledge of plant use in Northern Angola. This is not only essential for
further studies, i.e. regarding pharmaceutical agents, but also for the design of a planned botanical garden of the
University Kimpa Vita in Uíge, which aims at communicating the findings to the local people