RESUMO
Medicinal plants are an essential part of indigenous pharmaceutical systems. We studied the medicinal plants used by the Popoluca of the Sierra Santa Marta (Eastern Mexico). This study is part of a series on the ethnopharmacology of various Macro-Mayan groups. During 16 months of ethnobotanical fieldwork, 614 taxa used medicinally and 4488 individual use-reports were documented. The data are analysed using the concept of the "healers' consensus" in order to identify culturally important medicinal plants. The medicinal uses of the plants were grouped into 13 illness categories. The responses for each species were summarized for each of the categories and were ordered by frequency of mention. The most frequently recorded medicinal plants of the Popoluca are Hamelia patens, used to stop bleeding from wounds, and Byrsonima crassifolia, used against diarrhoea. The high-ranked medicinal species were assessed pharmacognostically using published phytochemical and pharmacological data. Popoluca medicinal uses were fairly consistent with published data on active ingredients for those plants for which such data exist. However, data is still lacking for many other species. Toxicological studies are particularly scarce. This study will be used as a basis for subsequent studies on the pharmacology and phytochemistry of medicinal plant species.
Assuntos
Etnofarmacologia , Animais , Feminino , Gastroenteropatias/tratamento farmacológico , Doenças dos Genitais Femininos/tratamento farmacológico , Humanos , México , Plantas Medicinais , Dermatopatias/tratamento farmacológicoRESUMO
The Zapotec inhabitants of the Sierra de Oaxaca foothills (Mexico) live in an area of great botanic diversity. In daily subsistence and in response to illness, plants play a major role. An inventory of the Zapotec medicinal ethnobotany was carried out during 17 months of fieldwork. A total of 3611 individual responses concerning medicinal and non-medicinal uses for 445 different species of plants were documented. For the subsequent semi-quantitative analysis of data, the uses were grouped into ten categories and the responses for each species were summed up in each of these ten groups to yield rank-ordered lists. For the high rank-ordered and, hence, culturally important species, an assessment of the therapeutic potential was conducted using ethnobotanical, phytochemical and pharmacological data in the literature. Studies confirming the attributed properties or a scientific explanation of therapeutic use, as well as toxicological data, are still lacking for many of these species. The quantitative approach described will be the basis for future studies on the pharmacology and phytochemistry of Zapotec medicinal species. Finally, these data should also serve as a basis for biodiversity conservation and community development.
Assuntos
Etnobotânica , Plantas Medicinais , Humanos , Indígenas Norte-Americanos , México , Extratos Vegetais/uso terapêutico , Especificidade da EspécieRESUMO
Medicinal plants are an important element of indigenous medical systems in Mexico. These resources are usually regarded as part of a culture's traditional knowledge. This study examines the use of medicinal plants in four indigenous groups of Mexican Indians, Maya, Nahua, Zapotec and - for comparative purposes - Mixe. With the first three the methodology was similar, making a direct comparison of the results possible. In these studies, the relative importance of a medicinal plant within a culture is documented using a quantitative method. For the analysis the uses were grouped into 9-10 categories of indigenous uses. This report compares these data and uses the concept of informant consensus originally developed by Trotter and Logan for analysis. This indicates how homogenous the ethnobotanical information is. Generally the factor is high for gastrointestinal illnesses and for culture bound syndromes. While the species used by the 3 indigenous groups vary, the data indicate that there exist well-defined criteria specific for each culture which lead to the selection of a plant as a medicine. A large number of species are used for gastrointestinal illnesses by two or more of the indigenous groups. At least in this case, the multiple transfer of species and their uses within Mexico seems to be an important reason for the widespread use of a species. Medicinal plants in other categories (e.g. skin diseases) are usually known only in one culture and seem to be part of its traditional knowledge.
Assuntos
Indígenas Norte-Americanos , Medicina Tradicional , Plantas Medicinais , Cultura , Gastroenteropatias/terapia , Humanos , México , FitoterapiaRESUMO
Based on ethnobotanical data collected among Zapotec Indians in Mexico, nine species traditionally applied to treat skin diseases and two species used to treat gastrointestinal disorders were subjected to several bioassays as further selection criteria for phytochemical investigation. Ten were active against at least one of the pathogenic and/or non-pathogenic bacteria and one against a non-pathogenic fungus in bioautographic TLC and agar diffusion tests. Cytotoxic/antitumor potential was found for one plant species with cell lines (KB, Caco-2) and for six with the brine shrimp assay. In the NF-κB- and the HET-CAM-test used to test for anti-inflammatory potential, two respectively one plant extract showed noteworthy activity. Furthermore, a potentially immunomodulating activity was investigated by evaluating the influence of extracts in various in vitro assays using murine and human lymphoid cells. In addition to the reported biological activities of the eleven plant species, comparisons of the ethnobotanical data and strategies for the selection for further phytochemical investigations are discussed.