Montserrat Gispert Cruells: “L’etnobotànica és la disciplina que afirma que les plantes són cultura”

Aprofitant una estada a Barcelona en el marc d’un any sabàtic de la catedràtica d’Etnobotànica de la Facultat de Ciències de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Montserrat Gispert Cruells, he parlat amb ella - i transcric aquí les principals idees sorgides de la nostra conversa. Hem xerrat sobre l’etnobotànica com a ciència i, també, de les diferents aproximacions metodològiques dels estudis etnobotànics, tant a Mèxic com en altres territoris. Insistim en les plantes que van viatjar cap aquí (a Catalunya, a Europa en general), i en les plantes que van ser introduïdes d’aquí a Mèxic, al llarg de tants d’anys d’intercanvis transcontinentals.Montserrat Gispert Cruells, professor of Ethnobotany at the Faculty of Sciences of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), has been in Barcelona as part of a sabbatical and I have talked with her – I transcribe here the main ideas arising from our conversation. We address the concept of Ethnobotany as a science and also the different approaches of ethnobotanical studies, both in Mexico and in other territories. We insist on the plants that travelled from Mexico to here (to Catalonia, to Europe in general), as well as on the plants that were introduced from here to Mexico along the many years of uninterrupted transcontinental trade

I tanmateix es mou! La relativitat del moviment a 2n d'ESO

És impossible definir el moviment sense un sistema de referència (SR). En la nostra recerca, havent recollit les respostes d'una pregunta d'examen de les tres línies de 2n d'ESO de l'INS Eugeni d'Ors de L'Hospitalet del Llobregat (Barcelona) (en total 87 alumnes), hem observat que els alumnes que han estat capaços de concretar un SR argumenten de ma-nera més madura (especificant un canvi de posició respecte al punt de referència) que els que no han concretat el SR. Els estudiants no estan acostumats a descriure moviments, menys si és des d'un SR, i molt menys si és des d'un SR en moviment. Es va comprovar que s'aconsegueixen més èxits en les respostes dels alumnes sobre moviment si es fa servir la construcció: Es mou M respecte R?, on M és el mòbil i R és la referència. Si M canvia de posició respecte R, hi ha moviment; en canvi, si M no canvia de posició respecte R, no hi ha moviment.It is impossible to define motion without using a reference system (RS). In our research, we collected and analyzed all the information given by 87 students answering an exam question about motion. The students were from the three groups of 2nd year of secondary school Eugeni d'Ors (L'Hospitalet del Llobregat, Barcelona). We observed that students who were able to set a RS, they could better and more maturely argue about motion (specifying a change of position in relation to the point taken as reference), compared to the students who did not concrete a RS. Students are not used to describe movements, not from a RS, and a lot less from a moving RS. It has been proved that the best sentence construction to be used by the teacher when facing motion learning is: Is M moving in relation to R?, where M is the moving object and R is the reference. If M changes position in relation to R, then there is motion; otherwise, if M does not change position in relation to R, it means there is no motion

Back to the island of calm: Mallorcan human traditional medicine and ethnobotany

Podeu consultar el llibre complet a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/63704This study reveals that a successful ethnobotanical survey can take place still nowadays, even close to one of the hotspots of tourism in the Mediterranean coast. This is the first approach in this field entirely based on interviews with local people in Mallorca. An amount of 235 informants has been inquired from all the 53 municipalities of the island. The data collected have been analyzed from the botanical and ethnographical points of view, and managed using the online platform of our research team (details at www.etnobiofic.cat). The Mallorcan ethnopharmacopoeia includes 255 plant taxa referring more than 150 medicinal use categories. Ethnomedical queries as the one here presented contribute to the knowledge of the traditional use of plants of the island and appreciate the benefits of this knowledge, applied to the present and future of its society

Plant Ethnoveterinary Practices in Two Pyrenean Territories of Catalonia (Iberian Peninsula) and in Two Areas of the Balearic Islands and Comparison with Ethnobotanical Uses in Human Medicine

22 p.This paper presents the results of an ethnobotanical study centred in veterinarian uses in two Catalan Pyrenean regions (Alt Empordà -AE- and High River Ter Valley -AT-, Iberian peninsula) and two Balearic Islands areas (Formentera -FO- and northeastern Mallorca -MA-). In the areas studied, 97 plant species have been claimed to be useful for veterinary purposes. A total of 306 veterinary use reports have been gathered and analysed. The ten most reported plants are Tanacetum parthenium (24 use reports), Parietaria officinalis (15), Ranunculus parnassifolius (14),Meum athamanticum (13), Olea europaea (13), Quercus ilex (12), Ruta chalepensis (12), Sambucus nigra (10) and Thymus vulgaris (10). According to comprehensive reviews, a high number of novelties for plant ethnoveterinary are contributed: 34 species and one subspecies, 11 genera, and three families have not been reported in previous works in this field, and 21 species had only been mentioned once. Several ethnoveterinary uses are coincidental with those in human medicine. Although ethnoveterinary practices are less relevant than in the past in the territories considered, as in all industrialised countries, the knowledge on plant properties and applications is still rich and constitutes a large pool of evidence for phytotherapy, both in domestic animals and humans.Research was partially supported by projects subsidized by the Municipal Council of Figueres (XI Beca de Recerca “Ciutat de Figueres”,2009), the Catalan Agency for University and Research Grants Management (AGAUR, projects 2009ACOM00012 and 2009ACOM00013), and the SpanishMinistry for Science and Innovation (MICINN, projects SEJ2007-60873/SOCI and CSO2011-27565). The support of the Centre d’Estudis Comarcals del Ripoll`es is also thanked. E. Carri ´o received a predoctoral grant of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (AP2007-00766). The authors also received funding from GReB (from the abbreviation in Catalan, Biodiversity and Plant Biosystematics Research Group, Catalan government, AGAUR 2009SGR439).Peer reviewe

Beyond food and medicine, but necessary for life, too: other folk plant uses in several territories of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands

53 p., mapa, tablas, gráfico -- La licencia Creative Commons de los datos que se han utilizado en este artículo es: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/[Background] Ethnobotanical academic research, particularly in European industrialised countries, has been, and is, mostly focused on folk uses of food and medicinal plants. Nevertheless, other uses, as may well be supposed, account for a significant portion of these folk uses. In the Catalan linguistic domain, a considerable amount of ethnobotanical work has been produced, but to date almost nothing has been published on these other plant uses.[Methods] We basically used the method of semistructured interviews to collect data on names, knowledge and use of plants in the above-mentioned fields from 759 informants in three Catalonian (Alt Empordà, Montseny and Ripollès) and two Balearic (Formentera and Mallorca) areas. We identified the plants quoted by the informants and prepared herbarium vouchers. We analysed and compared the results obtained.[Results] Information has been collected on 401 genera, 552 species, 81 subspecies and four varieties, belonging to 122 families, totalling 4137 use reports for popular non-food and non-medicinal uses (classified in 14 modalities), and designated with 1303 folk Catalan names. The informant consensus factor is 0.87, accounting for a consistent and robust dataset.[Conclusion] Contrarily to what could be thought a priori, and irrespective of the fact that some uses are declining or changing, non-medicinal and non-food folk plant uses strongly persist in the territories considered, are highly considered by their practitioners, and may even imply some economic revenues.This research has been partially funded by the municipal council of Figueres (IX Beca de recerca “Ciutat de Figueres”), the Catalan government (projects 2009SGR439, 2009ACOM00012, 2009ACOM00013 and 2014SGR514) and the Spanish government (project CSO2014-59704-P). We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI)Peer reviewe

Cuestión de gusto: ¿Qué explica el consumo de plantas silvestres? Estudio en los Pirineos catalanes y las Islas Baleares

14 p., tablas, mapas -- versión online previa sin paginación -- post-print del artículo publicado en Economic Botany. Versión revisada y corregida.[EN] Previous research has documented different trends in the consumption of wild food plants but has rarely analyzed the motivations behind their continued (or lack of) consumption. In this article, we use empirical data to explore the factors driving the consumption of a selected set of wild food plants. We start by analyzing the different trends (i.e., abandonment, maintenance, and valorization) across 21 selected species with different food uses. We then explore the reported motivations that drive such trends using data collected among 354 respondents in three Catalan-speaking rural areas. The consumption of wild food plants is decreasing in the three study areas and across the categories of food use analyzed. Respondents listed sociocultural factors, rather than environmental or economic factors, as more prominent determinants of consumption trends; taste preferences seem to be the most relevant motivation for those who continue to consume wild food plants, whereas a myriad of motivations related to changes in lifestyle were provided by those who explain the abandonment of their consumption.[ES] Se han documentado diferentes tendencias en el consumo de plantas silvestres comestibles, pero raramente se han analizado las razones que explican por qué algunas plantas se siguen consumiendo y otras no. En base a una selección de plantas silvestres comestibles, en este artículo exploramos los factores que explican las tendencias en el consumo de plantas silvestres. En la primera parte analizamos las tendencias de consumo (abandono, mantenimiento y valorización) de un grupo de 21 especies con diferentes usos alimentarios y en la segunda exploramos las motivaciones esgrimidas por 354 habitantes de tres áreas rurales catalanoparlantes en relación a estas tendencias. El consumo de plantas silvestres parece haber sufrido una reducción generalizada en las áreas prospectadas. Para todas las especies, los encuestados mencionaron factores socioculturales, más que ambientales o económicos, como importantes a la hora de explicar sus patrones de consumo. Específicamente, el sabor parece ser el principal argumento para aquellos que continúan consumiendo plantas silvestres mientras que una combinación de motivos relacionados con cambios en estilos de vida predomina entre las explicaciones de aquellos que han abandonado su consumo.The present work was conducted under the framework of the project “Sociocultural factors that explain the gathering and consumption of food wild plants and minor crops. Case studies in the Iberian peninsula and the Balearic Islands,” funded by the Economy and Competitiveness Ministry (CSO2011-27565) of the Spanish government. The contribution of Generalitat de Catalunya is also acknowledged (project 2014SGR514). E.C. benefited from a predoctoral contract from the Spanish Ministry for Education.Peer reviewe

Herba de les orenetes, flor de Sant Joan, octubre, col d'hivern: diversos aspectes del temps en el saber popular de les plantes detectats a través de recerques etnobotàniques en territoris de llengua catalana.

40 p. -- PDF de la presentación utilizada en el Coloquio “Mirades de la ciència sobre el temps”, celebrado en Barcelona del 26 al 27 de maig de 2014.Peer Reviewe

A phylogenetic road map to antimalarial Artemisia species

Ethnopharmacological relevance The discovery of the antimalarial agent artemisinin is considered one of the most significant success stories of ethnopharmacological research in recent times. The isolation of artemisinin was inspired by the use of Artemisia annua in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2015. Antimalarial activity has since been demonstrated for a range of other Artemisia species, suggesting that the genus could provide alternative sources of antimalarial treatments. Given the stunning diversity of the genus (c. 500 species), a prioritisation of taxa to be investigated for their likely antimalarial properties is required. Materials and methods Here we use a phylogenetic approach to explore the potential for identifying species more likely to possess antimalarial properties. Ethnobotanical data from literature reports is recorded for 117 species. Subsequent phylogenetically informed analysis was used to identify lineages in which there is an overrepresentation of species used to treat malarial symptoms, and which could therefore be high priority for further investigation of antimalarial activity. Results We show that these lineages indeed include several species with documented antimalarial activity. To further inform our approach, we use LC-MS/MS analysis to explore artemisinin content in fifteen species from both highlighted and not highlighted lineages. We detected artemisinin in nine species, in eight of them for the first time, doubling the number of Artemisia taxa known to content this molecule. Conclusions Our findings indicate that artemisinin may be widespread across the genus, providing an accessible local resource outside the distribution area of Artemisia annua

Ethnobotany of Mallorca (Balearic Islands): A Multidisciplinary Approach

In this communication, we provide some basic methodological and practical ideas for plant knowledge comparisons among different predefined natural regions of the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, in the frame of an ongoing project in this area. The final goal of this work is to present a tool to find out to what extent plant knowledge is similar in the different regions. We use an uncommon approach to ethnobotanical studies in terms of multidisciplinary methodology. We base our arguments on social anthropology methods, using a diversity index (the SØrensen similarity coefficient), and we also explain the botanical part of the investigation. Our preliminary results reveal few differences among the three natural regions considered on the island, which we believe could find their explanation in geographic, botanical and cultural aspects