4. Conclusion
In this study, 93 medicinal plant species belonging to 38 families were found in the research area. Among them, 80 species were wild and 13 species were cultivated plants. These plants are used in the treatment of many diseases. By drying and making infusions or decoctions of these plants, local people use them over the course of the whole year.
In all the ethnobotanical studies carried out in villages of Bingöl and its surroundings, it has been observed that people living in rural areas have more information about the use of medicinal plants, compared to the people living in the centre. Even the lowland villagers have less information than the mountain villagers, so we obtained the most information from the mountain villagers. While the number of remedies being consciously used by individuals in mountain villages in the region is 162, the number of traditional remedies being used by individuals in areas where the access is easy is 58. Women over 50 years old make up the most important group in terms of obtaining ethnobotanical information. People in the study area under the age of 40 were found to be less knowledgeable on the use of medicinal plants as compared to those over 50, due to the higher level of exposure of the former ones to modernization. Examining the interviews that were conducted, it is observed that individuals older than 50 gave information about approximately 74 plants and 182 traditional remedies. In addition to this, examining the data of individuals younger than 40, it is observed that there is information about 19 plants and 28 usage remedies. It is observed that individuals younger than 40 in the region generally gave information about plants with higher UVs and FLs. Similar results were reported in the studies conducted in Turkey (Ertuğ et al., 2003, Cakilcioglu and Turkoglu, 2010).
