Study of ethnobotany of medicinal plant of Tobelo Dalam (Togutil) ethnic group of Halmahera Island, Indonesia

The world population, especially in developing countries, depends on medicinal plants for basic health treatment. In Indonesia, 55.3% people uses traditional herb for their health treatment and 95.6% admits that traditional herb used is valuable for their health. Obelo Dalam (Togutil) ethnic group is one of remote ethnic groups in Indonesia practicing traditional medicinal treatment using medicinal plants. Until now, there is no specific identification on the medicinal plants used by the ethnic group. Information on medicinal plants used by nomadic and sedentary communities of Tobelo Dalam (Togutil) was collected through direct contact semi-structured interview with key informants and group discussion. Determination of main informants was conducted using purposive sampling technique and snowball sampling was used to determine the key informants. Result of study revealed that the nomadic community of Tobelo Dalam (Togutil) ethnic group used 36 species of medicinal plants that belonged to 22 families for medicinal treatment to maintain their basic health; whereas, the sedentary community of the group use 57 species of medicinal plants that belonged to 35 families.