Data of medicinal plants used to treat small ruminants diseases in Benin

The data presented in this database are related to ethnoveterinary medicine practices on traditional small ruminants farms in Benin (West Africa). They focus on the medicinal plants used and the socioeconomic and environmental factors that influence the level of ethnoveterinary knowledge on these farms. Table 1 provided a complete list of the 101 medicinal plants inventoried, their family, vernacular names, frequency of citation and the Cultural Importance Index (CI). In the other hand, details were provided in Table 2 on recipes used per disease category and how the recipes were prepared, the part of the plant to be used, the route of administration of the recipes, the clinical signs and their vernacular names. Gender, ethnicity, agro-ecological zone and flocks size were the socioeconomic and environmental factors that significantly influenced the level of ethnoveterinary knowledge. Researchers in ethnopharmacology can use the list of inventoried plants to assess the biological activity of less investigated plants and identify the active compounds.