Abstract:
: Knowledge and practice of medicinal plant use is embedded in the Maasai culture. However,
it is not known how that knowledge and practices are acquired by children and transferred across
generations. We assessed children’s knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses, methods of
knowledge acquisition and transfer, and how that process is influenced by demographic attributes
such as gender, level of education, and age. We interviewed 80 children who were 6–17 years old.
Mann–Whitney U, Kruskal–Wallis tests and Spearman Rank order correlation were performed to
determine the influence of gender, level of education, and age when they are in the process of
acquiring ethnomedicinal plant knowledge. The Maasai children acquired knowledge of medicinal
plants progressively with their age. Ethnomedicinal knowledge was not influenced by gender or
level of education. The children were introduced to the knowledge of local medicinal plants and their
use at an average age of seven years and the knowledge was transferred indiscriminately to both
girls and boys. This study aids in the protection and conservation of medicinal plant knowledge by
encouraging the sustainability of the local cultural heritage
