Background: Herbal medicines are part of plant derived material formulations which often contain raw materials of processed ingredients from or more plants. Despite of the lack of pharmacological knowledge, safety and toxicity of the herbal medicines, many people still use them for various health needs. WHO says that 80% of developing countries depend on herbal medicines to meet their primary healthcare needs like for treatment of hypertension, diabetes, due to poor health services.
Methodology: A Cross-sectional study conducted at Misungwi district, study population was Misungwi people above 18 years of age, structured questionnaires used to obtain information, the sample size was 361 people, analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
Result and discussion: 361 questionnaires distributed among Misungwi people, 256 among them were used herbal medicines and 105 people were not users of herbal medicines. Prevalence of herbal medicines use among Misungwi people were 70.9% the most common disease lead to the use of that herbal medicines was gastrointestinal problems 38.5%. most common factor for herbal medicines use in this study was non-ownership of health insurance 80.1% as compares to users who are member of health insurance 19.9%.
Conclusion: Prevalence of herbal medicines use among Misungwi people was high; it was significant higher prevalence in male than in female. People are still use herbal medicines even if they are nearby health service centre.
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