Description of the study area
Amhara Region is located in the Northwestern part of Ethiopia; its land area is estimated at 170,000 square kilometers. The region borders Tigray in the North, Afar in the East, Oromiya in the South, Benishangul-Gumuz Region in the Southwest, and the Country of Sudan in the West [5, 21]. The region has an estimated total population of twenty million one hundred thirty-six [6]. Bahir-Dar is the capital city of Amhara Regional State. The region is divided into 11 zones, and 167 Districts. There are about 3,429 villages (the smallest administrative units) [5, 21]. North Gondar is one of the administrative zones found in the region, named for the city of Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia until the mid-19th century, which has often been used as a name for the 20th-century province of Begemder. North Gondar is bordered on the south by Lake Tana, West Gojjam Zone, Awi Zone, and the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, on the west by Sudan, on the north by the Tigray Region, on the east by Wag Hemera, and on the southeast by Debub Gondar. Towns and cities in North Gondar include Dabat, Debarq, Emfranz, Gondar, Gorgora, and Metema[ 5, 6].
North gondar Zone has a total population of 2,929,628, of whom 1,486,040 are men and 1,443,588 are women; with an area of 45,944.63 square kilometers. North Gondar has a population density of 63.76. A total of 654,803 households are counted. The main ethnic group reported is Amhara (97.84%) whereas all other ethnic groups made up 2.16% of the population. Amharic is the first language spoken (98.32%) and 95.38% practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 4.29% are Muslim [5, 6, 21].
West Gojjam is the other administrative zone of the region, which is named after the former province of Gojjam. It is bordered on the south by the Great Abay River, which separates it from the Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz Region, on the west by Awi Zone, on the northwest by North Gondar, on the North by Lake Tana, and the Great Abay River which separates it from the South Gondar Zone, and on the East by East Gojjam. Its highest point is Mount Amedamit. Towns in West Gojjam Zone include Bahir Dar, Adet, Finote Selam, Bure, Quarite, Dega Damot, Sekela, Merawi, Yismala, and Dembecha are towns of west Gojjam. FinoteSelam is the capital city of the zone. West Gijam Zone had a total population of 2,106,596, of whom 1,058,272 were men and 1,048,324 were women; with an area of 13,311.94 square kilometers, it had a population density of 158.25. A total of 480,255 households were counted. The largest ethnic group reported was Amhara (99.42%); all other ethnic groups made up 0.52% of the population. Amharic is spoken as a first language by 99.43%; 98.68% of the population practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 1.19% were Muslim [1, 2]. Specifically, the survey study was conducted at Bahir Dar city administration, Bahir Dar zuria, Debiya, Takusa, Alefa and Gonder zuria Districts [Figure-1]. One up to two villages per District which bring a total of ten representative villages (the smallest administrative unit in Ethiopia) was selected for data collection. Zege 01, Ura, Wonjeta, Yigodi, Guraba Michale, Bata, Mekonta-aybega, Chemera na-banberawa, Layiye-duge. Zengaj villages were used as sampled study site.
Research and sampling design
The potential distribution of Ocimum americanum was assessed from regional, Zonal, and District annual reports. Checklists were given to the agricultural officers. They used their report document and previous field experiences to prioritize and sort the growing villages from the highest to lowest production. Generally, districts and villages were selected purposively based on the wealth of Ocimum americanum, Knowledge, and habit of traditional consumption of the resources with the assistance of information obtained from regional, Zonal and district Agricultural offices. A purposive sampling method was employed to identify Ocimum americanum potential growing sites. In addition, proportional sampling was used to select Respondents who participated in the study. A total population [N] of 1200 cultivators and users of Ocimum americanum were sorted and proportionally, 10% of individual participants were selected using a lottery method. A total of 120 key informants (males and females) were selected proportionally [1, 2, 5, and, 23].Ethno botanical data Collection
A reconnaissance survey of all sampled sites [villages] was conducted with growers and users to obtain the overall conditions of the study area. Guided Field walk and observation were carried out to collect field data based on a checklist. Representative specimens and photographs of Ocimum americanum were taken for taxonomic identification and confirmation. A semi-structured interview translated into Amharic language was administered to respondents. Data associated with bio-prospecting potential, opportunities, distribution, and local use of Ocimum americanum were gathered from respondents with the aid of agricultural officers. Group discussion was conducted with systematically selected key informants/elderly farmers. Medicinal, flavor, aroma, and preservative traditional use of the species were discussed and a consensus was reached with interactive meeting [1, 2, and5].
Data analysis and interpretation
All collected data were subjected to SPSS software version 21 and Excel for analysis and then interpreted using descriptive statistics, fidelity level, direct matrix ranking and Jaccard’s coefficient of similarity. Descriptive statistic like percentage and frequency were used to analyze and summarize the data of use category, ethno-medicinal use and associated knowledge.
Fidelity level (FL in %)
percentage of informants claiming the use of Ocimum americanum for the same major purpose was calculated using the general formula FL (%=NP/N) where NP is the number of informants claiming the use of Ocimum americanum for a particular purpose and N is the number of the informant that use Ocimum americanum to fill for any given purpose following [1, 2 and 3]
Direct matrix ranking
It was tabularized in order to compare Ocimum americanum spiced local foods commonly reported by informants with their use categories. All of the spiced local foods were considered for the computation and 4 selected use category of Ocimum americanum as described by the respondents were listed. Five key informants were selected to assign use values for each attributes (5 = excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = less and 1 = least used). From the total of eleven use categories, Food flavor (FF), Ailment treatment (AT), Food preservative (FP), and Aroma to foods (AF) were selected [24].
Jaccard’s coefficient of similarity (JSC)
The degree of similarity was computed to evaluate basil spiced local foods of Alefa District that contain the maximum composition (88.88%) of the basil spiced local foods with the remaining five surveyed districts that contain the lowest (44.44% ) of basil spiced local foods composition, up to the second highest (77.77%) of the food list composition. The formula used to calculate, JSC = C/a + b + c, where, JSC is Jaccard’s coefficient of similarity, a is number of basil sweetened local foods in District a, b is number of basil sweetened foods in District b, and c is number of common basil spiced local food in District a and b, modified following [25].