2023, Vol. 11, Issue 1, Part B

Bitters”, are drinks obtained by macerating plant organs in alcohol, sold and consumed in Abidjan for various reasons. This study aimed to have a better knowledge on the practice of this activity in the said city. An ethnobotanical survey was carried out in 100 bistros in four popular municipalities of the city of Abidjan, through semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The sale of macerated is widely practiced by women (79.5%), while its consumption is the prerogative of men (97.29%). Twenty-three types of “bitters” were inventoried, 16 of which were found in the four communes. The evaluation of the level of knowledge, showed that the most important and most popular macerated were the "red-bitter" (Sa = 0.65), "yellow-bitter" (0.62) and “4 a.m.” (0.58). Fifty-four species of plants were used in the composition of these beverages, distributed in 48 genera belonging to 30 families, of which the most popular were Apocynaceae, Annonaceae and Meliaceae. These results revealed that “bitters” were widely sold and consumed in Abidjan. Knowledge about these macerated drinks could be used to propose solutions for a better formalization of the sale of these drinks in Côte d'Ivoire.