Medicalethnobotany of some weeds of Mauritius and Rodrigues.

The people of Mauritius and Rodrigues have always used medicinal plants for various ailments, and have for a long time been dependent on surrounding plant resources for their food, shelter, fodder, health care and other cultural purposes. However, encroaching industrialization and the accompanying changes in their lifestyles are responsible for the decrease of practice in the local use of plants for medicine. It is, therefore, felt worthwhile to record the native uses of these plants before the information is lost. The present paper deals with the medicalethnobotany of 53 genera and 94 different species of plants considered as weeds.