scholarly journals Medical ethnobotany of herbal practitioners in the Turkestan Range, southwestern Kyrgyzstan

2016 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Pawera ◽  
Vladimir Verner ◽  
Celine Termote ◽  
Ishenbay Sodombekov ◽  
Alexander Kandakov ◽  
...  

This study recorded and analyzed traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in the Turkestan Range in southwestern Kyrgyzstan, where ethnobotanical knowledge has been largely under-documented to date. Data was collected through participant observation and both semi-structured and in-depth interviews with 10 herbal specialists. A total of 50 medicinal plant taxa were documented, distributed among 46 genera and 27 botanical families. In folk medicine they are applied in 75 different formulations, which cure 63 human and three animal ailments. Quantitative ethnobotanical indices were calculated to analyze traditional knowledge of the informants and to determine the cultural importance of particular medicinal plants. <em>Ziziphora pamiroalaica</em>, <em>Peganum harmala</em>, and <em>Inula orientalis</em> obtained the highest use value (UV). The best-represented and culturally important families were Lamiaceae, Asteraceae, and Apiaceae. Gastro-intestinal system disorders was the most prevalent ailment category. Most medicinal plants were gathered from nearby environments, however, species with a higher cultural value occurred at distant rather than nearby collection sites. The findings of this study proved the gap in documentation of traditional knowledge in Kyrgyzstan, indicating that further studies on the traditional use of wild plant resources could bring important insights into ecosystems’ diversity with implications to human ecology and bio-cultural diversity conservation in Central Asia.

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Vlková ◽  
E. Kubátová ◽  
P. Šlechta ◽  
Z. Polesný

Abstract Most of the ethnobotanical research is dedicated to food and medicinal plants, while the other categories, such as plants used as materials, veterinary remedies or fodder remain neglected. This trend dominates in East Europe where linguistic approach prevails, while ethnographical one stays under-explored, though the heritage of the 19th century was impressive. Field data were collected through in-depth individual semi-structured interviews with the last remaining ethnic Czechs living in Romanian Banat and triangulated with extensive participant observation. The aims of this study were to document and preserve local knowledge pertaining to the use of traditional cultivated and wild plants. The study focused on under-documented use categories, hence, food and medicinal plants were excluded. In total, 56 plant species were cited by informants. The paper also highlights vernacular names, phytonyms, and particularly interesting uses of plant resources or related aspects not described previously or under-reported in the literature. The authors conclude that the ethnobotanical knowledge still survives as a part of the cultural heritage of the Czech diaspora. However, several interesting uses are only practiced by elderly people, the knowledge is ageing, and is likely to vanish fairly soon.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ratna Susandarini ◽  
Uswatun Khasanah ◽  
Nurma Rosalia

Abstract. Susandarini R, Khasanah U, Rosalia N. 2021. Ethnobotanical study of plants used as food and for maternal health care by the Malays communities in Kampar Kiri Hulu, Riau, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 3111-3120. Studies to reveal the diversity of food plants on communities living in remote areas with limited access to the market are important as an effort in documenting the traditional knowledge. The same applies to the diversity of medicinal plants used in maternal health care for communities that have limited access to public health facilities. The documentation of ethnobotanical knowledge is not only for the purpose of developing the potential of these plants, but also could have an impact on their conservation in nature. This study aims to document the traditional knowledge on the diversity of food plants and medicinal plants used in maternal health care by Malays tribes living within the Bukit Rimbang Bukit Baling Wildlife Reserve, Kampar Kiri Hulu Subdistrict, Kampar District, Riau Province, Indonesia. The research was conducted in three villages by collecting data through interviews and followed by fieldwork to collect plant specimens for identification. Data on food plant diversity data were obtained from 20 informants, while data on the diversity and use of medicinal plants for maternal health care were obtained from 73 informants. The results showed that there were 76 species of food plants from 35 families. These food plants were used as secondary food ingredients, vegetables, fruit and spices with most of these plants were obtained from the yard of the house. Plants used for maternal health care identified from this study were 34 species from 26 families. These plants were used for various purposes during pregnancy, child delivery, postpartum recovery, and infant health care. The diversity of food plants and medicinal plants for maternal health care documented in this study showed the valuable role of plant resources in supporting daily needs and health care of the communities living in the fringe of forest area.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efthymia Eleni Tsioutsiou ◽  
Paolo Giordani ◽  
Effie Hanlidou ◽  
Marco Biagi ◽  
Vincenzo De Feo ◽  
...  

This work provides the ethnobotanical data concerning the traditional use of medicinal plants in Macedonia region (Northern Greece), which has, up to now, been poorly investigated. The aim of the present study was to collect, analyze, and evaluate information on the use of medicinal plants among different population groups living in Central Macedonia. The study was carried out in the area of two small cities, Edessa and Naoussa, and nearby villages. The ethnobotanical data were gathered through extensive and semistructured interviews. The informants belonged to different population groups living in the study areas and were involved, at least partially, in agriculture. Together with detailed reports on each species, data were also summarized by some indices, such as Fidelity Level (FL) and Informant Consensus Factor (Fic). A group of 96 informants was interviewed and 87 plant taxa with medicinal uses were cited. Medicinal plants are used to treat a wide range of diseases, in particular ailments of the respiratory tract and skin disorders. The importance of the traditional use of plants to cure and prevent common and some uncommon diseases had been highlighted. About 55% of medicinal plants mentioned by the informants had been previously reported to be sold in Thessaloniki herbal market as traditional remedies. Medicinal uses of some endemic taxa had been reported, e.g., Satureja montana subsp. macedonica, a member of the S. montana group restricted to Northern Central Greece, Origanum dictamnus, an endemic species of Crete, and six Balkan endemics, i.e., Achillea holosericea, Digitalis lanata, Helleborus odorus subsp. cyclophyllus, Sideritis scardica, Thymus sibthorpii, and Verbascum longifolium. Several differences in Traditional Ethnobotanical Knowledge (TEK) were observed in relation to social and cultural components of the population. Only 7 species (Crataegus monogyna, Hypericum perforatum, Matricaria chamomilla, Rosa canina, Sambucus nigra, Sideritis scardica, and Tilia platyphyllos) were commonly reported by all population groups, whereas 30 out of 87 taxa (34%) were exclusively mentioned by a single group. All groups are incorporated in the local society and do not identify themselves as members of different ethnic groups, although they try to preserve their distinctiveness by keeping their traditions and dialects. Nevertheless, our data show that the knowledge regarding the medicinal plant use was rarely accompanied by preservation of linguistic diversity concerning the plant names. This work contributes to improve the knowledge on the traditional use of plants in the folk medicine of a region like Central Macedonia where different population groups live together, partially maintaining their traditions. A part of data of this paper has been presented as posted at 112° Congress of Italian Botanical Society (IPSC), Parma 20-23 September 2017.


Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sulaiman ◽  
Sikandar Shah ◽  
Sheharyar Khan ◽  
Rainer W. Bussmann ◽  
Maroof Ali ◽  
...  

The current study on the traditional use of medicinal plants was carried out from February 2018 to March 2020, in Gokand Valley, District Buner, Pakistan. The goal was to collect, interpret, and evaluate data on the application of medicinal plants. Along with comprehensive notes on individual plants species, we calculated Use Value (UV), Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC), Use Report (UR), Fidelity Level (FL), Informant Consensus Factor (FCI), as well as Family Importance Value (FIV). During the current study, a total of 109 species belonging to 64 families were reported to be used in the treatment of various ailments. It included three families (four species) of Pteridophytes, 58 families (99 species) of angiosperm, one family (three species) of Gymnosperms, and two families (three species) of fungi. The article highlights the significance of domestic consumption of plant resources to treat human ailments. The UV varied from 0.2 (Acorus calamus L.) to 0.89 (Acacia modesta Wall.). The RFC ranged from 0.059 (Acorus calamus L. and Convolvulus arvensis L.) to 0.285 (Acacia modesta Wall.). The species with 100% FL were Acacia modesta Wall. and the fungus Morchella esculenta Fr., while the FCI was documented from 0 to 0.45 for gastro-intestinal disorders. The conservation ranks of the medicinal plant species revealed that 28 plant species were vulnerable, followed by rare (25 spp.), infrequent (17 spp.), dominant (16 spp.), and 10 species endangered. The traditional use of plants needs conservation strategies and further investigation for better utilization of natural resources.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
M Nagalakshmi ◽  
S Rashmi

An ethnobotanical survey was conducted to collect information from traditional healers on the use of herbal medicine in Doddakavalande Hobli, Nanjangud taluk of Mysore District. The indigenous knowledge of local healers was documented through questionnaire and personal interviews. In the present study, about 19 respondents of age group between 50 to 89 yrs gave information of traditional medicines used to cure different ailments. Of about 35 plant species belonging to 26 families were used for the treatment of human ailments. In which family Fabaceae and Polygonaceae contained 3 plant species, followed by Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Apocynaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Poaceae contained 2 species each, and the rest of the families Amaryllidaceae, Anacardiaceae, Apiaceae, Aristolochiaceae, Asteraceae, Cleastraceae, Crassulaceae, Lamiaceae, Lecythidaceae,  Meliaceae,  Olaceae, Phylanthaceae, Piperaceae,  Plumbaginaceae, Poaceae, Polygonaceae, Rutaceae,  Smilacaceae, Solanaceae,  Styracaceae and Zingiberaceae. Habit wise analysis of medicinal plant species used indicated that herbs (19 species) were the most preferred life form followed by trees (8 species), shrubs (5 species) and climbers (3 species) for drug formulation. Herbal formulations were administrated either internally or applied externally depending on the type of ailment. Local people in the study area possess traditional knowledge of medicinal plants to treat various human ailments, therefore it is necessary to preserve the indigenous knowledge on traditional medicines by proper documentation, identification of plant species used, and herbal preparation. Keywords: Ethnobotany, Traditional knowledge, Medicinal plants, Mysore district.


Author(s):  
Milkessa Edae ◽  
Fesseha Mulu

This folkloric study was aimed at documenting and exploring the utilization, spiritual and philosophical aspect and preparation of folk medicinal plants among the urban Oromo of the Gibe region with reference to Jimma and Agaro town. A total of 14 informants within the age group of 43 to 79 were interviewed several times on different folk medicinal plants. About 25 folk medicinal plants species were classified across 10 types, based on part of the plant used for medicinal purpose, have been documented with their scientific names in the study. The study indicate that folk medicinal plants used by the urban Oromo’s are under serious risk due to external and internal influences. Modernization and acculturation have contributed a lot in making the younger generation unwilling to practice, utilize and preserve traditional knowledge in general and folk medicine in particular. Thus, attention should be given for the preservation of these plants and folk healer’s wisdom.


Author(s):  
Jayasimha Rayalu Daddam ◽  
Peddanna Kotha ◽  
Umamahesh Katike ◽  
Sreenivasulu Basha ◽  
Muralidhara Rao Dowlathabad

Abstract Ethnopharmological relevanceAnantapuram district is known for rich plant source and their traditional practices from long time by certain tribes for different diseases. Despite of increase in acceptance of traditional medicines in India, this rich indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants of Anantapuram district is not adequately documented previously.MethodsExtensive was done for past three years and a total of 66 plants from 66 species and 64 genera of 42 families were recorded. Interviews, Observations and guided talks with 415 participants were conducted to obtain ethno botanical data on medicinal plants grown and maintained in Anantapuram District of Andhra Pradesh, India. The names of plant species, their local name, mode of administration and parts used for different diseases are gathered with FIC and FL values.ResultsPlants widely used to cure the common symptoms of Intestinal disorders has highest agreement of FIC, followed by Toothache, Fever, Snake bite, Eye drops, Dermatological, Headache (0.88%), Hair shampoo (0.87%), Cut and Wounds (0.85%), Boils and Burns (0.84%), Bronchitis/cough (0.83%), Earache (0.82%), Pain (0.82%), Antihelmintic (0.81%), Diabetes (0.81%) and Stress (0.63%).ConclusionThis ethano botanical survey noticed that in Anantapuram very few medicinal plants were reported with their traditional use, can be an important economic source to develop this region and also planned exploitation is needed to make tribal people to continue folk medicine.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 326-351
Author(s):  
Rafael Pereira da Cruz ◽  
José Weverton Almeida-Bezerra ◽  
Saulo Almeida de Menezes ◽  
Viviane Bezerra da Silva ◽  
Luciano Temoteo dos Santos ◽  
...  

The Chapada of Araripe located in the Northeast of Brazil, presents a great vegetal diversity. Associated with this, the region presents a great cultural plurality, which reflects in several popular knowledge, such as the use of medicinal plants in the region. The objective of this work was to carry out an ethnopharmacological bibliographic survey of angiosperms present in the region. The scientific name of species was associated with the keywords "traditional use", "traditional medicine" "traditional knowledge" and "Brazil" to collect information published and available on Pubmed, Science Direct, Scielo and Scopus Platform. Subsequently, the species with the greatest versatility of use were selected and their relative importance (RI) indexes were calculated. As a result, 92 species with medicinal potential were identified in the Chapada of Araripe, corresponding to 81 genera and 44 botanical families, with Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Malvaceae and Rubiaceae being the taxa that presented the highest number of species with 16, 6, 5 and 5 respectively. The 10 most versatile species were Anacardium occidentale (RI: 1.38), Astronium urundeuva (1.86), Copaifera langsdorffii (2.00), Hancornia speciosa (1.81), Himatanthus drasticus (1.62), Hymenaea stigonocarpa (1.89), Lafoensia pacari (1.83), Libidibia ferrea (1.43), Scoparia dulcis (1.71) and Ximenia americana L. (1.46). Finally, we emphasize that Chapada of Araripe is a region of great biological and cultural value, being important actions for the preservation of local flora and traditional knowledge.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Inga Sīle ◽  

Medicinal plant knowledge in Europe is rooted in a long history of health traditions. Numerous ethnobotanical studies across Europe have addressed the increasing importance of the traditional use of medicinal plants. Latvia is a country with old folk medicine traditions and an extensive folk knowledge archive. The aim of this thesis was to collect and analyse knowledge about the use of the medicinal plants found in the records of Latvian folk medicine and to search for new ideas regarding the practical applications of these plants. This thesis reveals, for the first time to the international scientific community, the important ethnobotanical information contained in the records of Latvian folk medicine that had not yet been translated into English and are therefore less visible to researchers from all over the world. This thesis provides a list of the used plant species and plant parts, the dosage forms of herbal medicines, the routes of administration, and the disorders treated with medicinal plants mentioned in the records of Latvian folk medicine and used by indigenous people of Latvia in the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th centuries. In total, the thesis includes information on 211 plant taxa, most of which were utilized for the treatment of digestive and respiratory system disorders. To understand whether the information mentioned in the folklore material is relevant today, it was compared with evidence-based information regarding the uses of the listed plant, including official herbal monographs. During this study, it was concluded that only 59 plant taxa mentioned in the studied records of Latvian folk medicine are included in the official monographs of the European Medicines Agency, and most of the plant indications mentioned in the records have not been described in evidence-based monographs. After the systematic analysis of folklore materials, additional information on the molecular mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory activities of Pelargonium sidoides DC. and Prunus padus L. were investigated to confirm their traditional use for the treatment of inflammatory conditions. The obtained results provide evidence that both plant extracts exhibit pronounced in vitro and ex vivo anti-inflammatory activities, supporting their use in Latvian ethnomedicine as effective anti-inflammatory agents. The obtained results are important as they provide ideas for further research related to possibilities regarding the use of plants growing in the territory of Latvia and allow new perspectives to be gained for both national and international ethnobotanical research.


Author(s):  
Nivasini Tamothran ◽  
Rosazam Hussin ◽  
Fadzilah Majid Cooke

Traditional knowledge has been thought by scholars in the recent past as consisting of cultural beliefs and traditions in a given community that has developed over time and has been passed from generation to generation. The development of knowledge has the potential to change the nature of gender relations within the community. Nevertheless, traditional knowledge has become more encompassing since it has been restructured by new forms of knowledge, from informal education to governance. There are also hesitations and critique that these changes made a realization that traditional knowledge is gendered. This paper provides an overview of the gendered traditional knowledge in the fish cage industry, especially the more well-known product of hybrid grouper fish (Epinephelus sp). In this context, the gendered knowledge was evident through the views men held about womens fisher knowledge. The major methods used in this study were in-depth interviews, focus-group discussion and participant observation at the fish cage culture in Kampung Taritipan, Kota Marudu.


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