Good news from a new article in
the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine: knowledge of local medicinal
plants is still fairly strong even in a native community only 4 km from a city
center and bisected by a highway. The majority of the population still relies
exclusively on medicinal plants for self-medication.
Plants for which a medicinal use was described
In the community of Bajo
Quimiriki, despite the vicinity to the city of Pichanaki, traditional plant
knowledge has still a great importance in the daily life: 402 medicinal plants
were indicated by the informants for the treatment of 155 different ailments
and diseases.
Scientists interviewed Asháninka
community members who recognized 402 medicinal plants and knew their uses: 84%
were wild plants and 63% were collected from the forest. There were only 2%
exotics. Knowledge of the plants was significantly correlated with age and
gender, with women significantly outscoring men.
Women described a medicinal application
in a higher number of plants: they scored a total of 310 record of use versus
206 total records of use by men.
Of the 72 plants that researchers
had pre-marked, women described one or more medicinal use of 49,5%, while men
did so in 26,6%. Unfortunately, the Asháninka language is vanishing, and most
younger community members know only the Spanish names of their traditional
plants.
The children of the community
spend most of the day at school, where they are taught in Spanish. This
decreases their chances to learn about the uses of the medicinal plants from
the older people.
Among the most interesting
discoveries is that plant use by the Peruvian native population correlated well
with that of the Malinké of Mali in West Africa. There is always a stronger
likelihood that a benefit is real when widely dispersed populations use the
same plant for similar conditions.
You can download full text here
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