Updated 15 October 2026

medicinal plants Bwindi is one of Uganda’s outstanding natural or cultural attractions, drawing visitors in search of wildlife, scenery, and authentic African experiences. Bwindi’s forest has long been a pharmacy for the people around it. Batwa and Bakiga healers use its barks, roots, leaves and herbs for fever, stomach complaints, wounds, coughs and childbirth. Since the forest became a national park in 1991, most harvesting has been banned, but Bwindi was one of the first parks in Africa to set aside multiple-use zones where registered local herbalists, basket-makers and beekeepers may still collect selected plants. This guide covers the plants, the people who hold the knowledge, how controlled harvesting works, and how visitors can learn about it.

For traditional medicine across the whole country, including regulation and the best-known remedies, see our guide to traditional medicine and healing plants in Uganda.

Medicinal plants of Bwindi: what the forest provides for local communities

Who holds the knowledge

The Batwa lived in Bwindi as hunter-gatherers until they were evicted when the park was created, and they knew the forest more intimately than anyone. Their knowledge of which plants heal, which are poisonous and which provide food or materials was learned inside the forest. Because younger Batwa have grown up outside it, much of that knowledge now lives with older people. Recording it with their consent, and keeping it in Batwa hands, is a concern for both the community and researchers.

The Bakiga and Bafumbira farmers around the park have their own herbal traditions, drawing on the forest edge, fallow land and home gardens as well as the forest itself. Herbalists in these communities treat common illnesses, and families often use a home remedy before, or alongside, a visit to a clinic.

Some medicinal plants of Bwindi

Bwindi holds around 1,000 flowering plant species, including more than 160 kinds of tree, and researchers have recorded well over a hundred used as medicine by nearby communities. The African cherry, Prunus africana, grows in Bwindi’s montane forest. Its bark is used locally for fever and chest pain and internationally for prostate treatments. Because wild trees elsewhere in Africa have been stripped and killed by commercial harvesting, the trees inside the park are now an important protected population.

Many remedies come from smaller plants rather than trees. Wild ginger (Aframomum species) grows thickly in the understorey and is used for coughs and stomach problems, and gorillas eat its stems and fruit. Bitter leaf (Vernonia) is boiled for fever. Black-jack (Bidens pilosa), a common weed of paths and farms, is used on wounds and for stomach upsets. Various ferns, climbers and barks are used for skin conditions, worms and women’s health. Exact recipes and doses vary from healer to healer and are often closely guarded.

Multiple-use zones: harvesting inside the park

When Bwindi became a national park, the sudden loss of access caused deep resentment among its neighbours. In response, the park authorities and conservation groups created a Multiple Use Programme in the 1990s. Parts of the park next to some parishes were designated multiple-use zones, where members of recognised resource-user groups may harvest set quantities of agreed plants for medicine and basket-weaving, and keep beehives. Each arrangement is written into a resource-use agreement between the community and the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

The agreements specify which species may be taken, how much and how often. Usually these are plants that grow back, such as leaves and herbs, rather than trees killed by bark-stripping. Harvesting is monitored, and the zones cover only a small part of the park, away from the most sensitive areas. Studies have found that parishes with access to these zones tend to view the park more positively, although demand from those outside the programme remains a source of tension.

Conservation pressures

Outside the park, the land around Bwindi is almost entirely farmed, so many medicinal plants survive only in the forest. That puts pressure on the park boundary and makes illegal collection a continuing problem for rangers. Growing medicinal plants in home gardens and community nurseries, encouraged by several local projects, gives herbalists a supply without entering the forest and protects slow-growing species. Our guide to gorilla tourism and local communities explains how this fits into the wider effort to make the forest worth more to its neighbours alive than cleared.

Learning about forest medicine as a visitor

The best way to see this knowledge at work is with local guides. The Batwa-led Batwa cultural experience shows how the forest provided food, shelter and medicine. The community walk in Buhoma usually includes a visit to a traditional healer who explains common remedies and the plants behind them. Both are good afternoon activities after a gorilla trek. Many rangers and porters also know their plants, so ask on the way to the gorillas.

A gorilla permit costs US$800 (US$600 in April, May and November), and the trek through the forest is part of the experience, so there is time to look at the plants. Do not pick or take anything from the park, and do not try remedies yourself; what you learn is culture, not medical advice. For more on the forest itself, see our guide to fig trees in Bwindi.

Frequently asked questions