Medicinal Flora of the Popoluca, Mexico: A botanical systematical perspective

We studied the medicinal plants used by the Popoluca of the Sierra de Santa Marta (eastern Mexico). Using Moerman's method of regression analysis we determined which ethnomedically used taxa are over-represented in the Popolucan pharmacopoeia (e.g., Asteraceae) and which are underrepresented (e.g., Orchidaceae). Moerman et al. (1999) found high correlation between the holarctic pharmacopoeias and assumed that apart from the relatedness of the northern floras a "global pattern of human knowledge" may account for this finding. Although the Popoluca dwell in a habitat dominated by a neotropical flora but intermixed with important holarctic elements, they include considerably fewer neotropical taxa in their pharmacopoeia as one would expect if the historical transmitted knowledge were influencing their selection. This finding confirms the theory stated by Moerman et al. However, the Popoluca include some neotropical taxa in their pharmacopoeia and thus a moderate correlation exists between the Popolucan pharmacopoeia and the neotropical pharmacopoeia analysed by Moerman et al. We therefore conclude that apart from historically transmitted knowledge about specific taxa the "global pattern of human knowledge” addressed by Moerman et al. is largely based on "common selection criteria.

Trends of Medicinal Plant Use over the Last 2000 Years in Central Europe

Medicinal plant knowledge in Central Europe can be traced back from the present to antiquity, through written sources. Approximately 100 medicinal plant taxa have a history of continuous use. In this paper, we focus on use patterns over time and the link between historical and traditional uses with the current scientific evidence. We discuss our findings against the backdrop of changing eras and medicinal concepts. Based on use-records from totally 16 historical, popular and scientific herbals, we analyze how use categories of 102 medicinal plant taxa developed over time. Overall, 56 of the 102 taxa maintained continuous use throughout all time periods. For approximately 30% of the continuous uses, scientific evidence supporting their use exists, compared to 11% for recently added uses and 6% for discontinuous uses. Dermatology and gastroenterology are use categories that are relevant across all time periods. They are associated with a high diversity of medicinal taxa and continuously used medicinal species with scientific evidence. Antidotes, apotropaic (protective) magic, and humoral detoxification were important use categories in the past. New applications reflecting biomedical progress and epidemiological challenges are cardiovascular and tonic uses. Changes in medicinal concepts are mirrored in plant use and specifically in changes in the importance of use categories. Our finding supports the concept of social validation of plant uses, i.e., the assumption that longstanding use practice and tradition may suggest efficacy and safety

Ethnopharmacology, Ethnomedicine, and Wildlife Conservation

Ethnopharmacological relevance: There are longstanding traditions of animal-derived products being employed as medicines, and they continue to be important in many traditional cultural healthcare practices. However, the populations of numerous so-used animals are known to be threatened with extirpation by such practices. Ethnopharmacological studies documenting these animal-derived drug products are not only interesting from an anthropological standpoint, but they are also relevant from a wildlife conservation perspective - especially since ethnopharmacologists are intermediaries between indigenous and scientific communities, placing them at the forefront of being able to ethically access information to address these issues. Methods: Using the example of documenting culturally acceptable substitute materials for animal products (which ultimately also extends to flora), we explore the intersection of ethnopharmacology, biocultural resources, and wildlife conservation. Results: Pharmacological efficacy and symbolism are factors influencing the utilization of traditional medicines. Achieving the integration of conservation aims with ethnopharmacology requires a nuanced understanding of both factors, along with fair adjudication when conservation and cultural aims diverge. Ethnopharmacology is suitably placed for making conservation-orientated recommendations - including investigating more sustainable substitutes for animal products in the context of medical efficacy, and for engaging ethically with local communities to facilitate information generation aimed at protecting the environment and their traditions. Conclusion: We suggest an integrative approach to ethnopharmacological studies investigating medicinal bioresource use. This approach is considerate of species' conservation profiles, the substitutability and pharmacological efficacy of biocultural resources, indigenous and cultural rights, and a collaborative ethos for stakeholder engagement

Traditional herbal medicine in Mesoamerica: toward its evidence base for improving universal health coverage

The quality of health care in Mesoamerica is influenced by its rich cultural diversity and characterized by social inequalities. Especially indigenous and rural communities confront diverse barriers to accessing formal health services, leading to often conflicting plurimedical systems. Fostering integrative medicine is a fundamental pillar for achieving universal health coverage (UHC) for marginalized populations. Recent developments toward health sovereignty in the region are concerned with assessing the role of traditional medicines, and particularly herbal medicines, to foster accessible and culturally pertinent healthcare provision models. In Mesoamerica, as in most regions of the world, a wealth of information on traditional and complementary medicine has been recorded. Yet these data are often scattered, making it difficult for policy makers to regulate and integrate traditionally used botanical products into primary health care. This critical review is based on a quantitative analysis of 28 survey papers focusing on the traditional use of botanical drugs in Mesoamerica used for the compilation of the "Mesoamerican Medicinal Plant Database" (MAMPDB), which includes a total of 12,537 use-records for 2188 plant taxa. Our approach presents a fundamental step toward UHC by presenting a pharmacological and toxicological review of the cross-culturally salient plant taxa and associated botanical drugs used in traditional medicine in Mesoamerica. Especially for native herbal drugs, data about safety and effectiveness are limited. Commonly used cross-culturally salient botanical drugs, which are considered safe but for which data on effectiveness is lacking constitute ideal candidates for treatment outcome studies

Best practice in research: Consensus Statement on Ethnopharmacological Field Studies. ConSEFS

Background: Ethnopharmacological research aims at gathering information on local and traditional uses of plants and other natural substances. However, the approaches used and the methods employed vary, and while such a variability is desirable in terms of scientific diversity, research must adhere to well defined quality standards and reproducible methods. Objectives: With ConSEFS (the Consensus Statement on Ethnopharmacological Field Studies) we want to define best-practice in developing, conducting and reporting field studies focusing on local and traditional uses of medicinal and food plants, including studies using a historical approach. Methods: After first developing an initial draft the core group invited community-wide feedback from researchers both through a web-based consultation and a series of workshops at conferences during 2017. Outcomes:The consultation resulted in a large number of responses. Feedback was received via a weblink on the Journal of Ethnopharmacology´s website (ca. 100 responses), other oral and written responses (ca. 50) and discussions with stakeholders at four conferences. The main outcome is a checklist, covering best practice for designing, implementing and recording ethnopharmacological field studies and historical studies. Conclusions: Prior to starting ethnopharmacological field research, it is essential that the authors are fully aware of the best practice in the field. For the first time in the field of ethnopharmacology a community-wide document defines guidelines for best practice on how to conduct and report such studies. It will need to be updated and further developed. While the feedback has been based on responses by many experienced researchers, there is a need to test it in practice by using it both in implementing and reporting field studies (or historical studies), and peer-review.Fil: Heinrich, Michael. University of London; Reino UnidoFil: Lardos, Andreas. No especifíca;Fil: Leonti, Marco. Università Degli Studi Di Cagliari.; ItaliaFil: Weckerle, Caroline. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Willcox, Merlin. University of Southampton; Reino UnidoFil: Applequist, Wendy. Missouri Botanical Garden; Estados UnidosFil: Ladio, Ana Haydee. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Lin Long, Chun. Minzu University Of China; ChinaFil: Mukherjee, Pulok. Jadavpur University; IndiaFil: Stafford, Gary. Stellenbosch University; Sudáfric

Recommended standards for conducting and reporting ethnopharmacological field studies

Ethnopharmacological relevance: What are the minimum methodological and conceptual requirements for an ethnopharmacological field study? How can the results of ethnopharmacological field studies be reported so that researchers with different backgrounds can draw on the results and develop new research questions and projects? And how should these field data be presented to get accepted in a scientific journal, such as the Journal of Ethnopharmacology? The objective of this commentary is to create a reference that covers the basic standards necessary during planning, conducting and reporting of field research. Materials and methods: We focus on conducting and reporting ethnopharmacological field studies on medicinal plants or materia medica and associated knowledge of a specific people or region. The article highlights the most frequent problems and pitfalls, and draws on published literature, fieldwork experience, and extensive insights from peer-review of field studies. Results: Research needs to be ethical and legal, and follow local and national regulations. Primary ethnopharmacological field data need to be collected and presented in a transparent and comprehensible way. In short this includes: 1) Relevant and concise research questions, 2) Thorough literature study encompassing all available information on the study site from different disciplines, 3) Appropriate methods to answer the research questions, 4) Proper plant use documentation, unambiguously linked to voucher specimens, and 5) Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the collected data, the latter relying on use-reports as basic units. Conclusion: Although not exhaustive, we provide an overview of the necessary main issues to consider for field research and data reporting including a list of minimal standards and recommendations for best practices. For methodological details and how to correctly apply specific methods, we refer to further reading of suggested textbooks and methods manuals

The future is written: Impact of scripts on the cognition, selection, knowledge and transmission of medicinal plant use and its implications for ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology

Aim of the study: Apart from empirically learned medicinal and pharmacological properties, the selection of medicinal plants is dependent on cognitive features, ecological factors and cultural history. In literate societies the transmission of medicinal plant knowledge through texts and, more recently, other media containing local as well as non-local knowledge has a more immediate and a more prolonged effect than oral transmission. Therefore, I try to visualize how field based studies in ethnobiology and especially medical ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology run the risk of repeating information and knowledge and illustrate the importance of differentiating and acknowledging the origin, transmission and rationale of plant use made by humans. Materials and methods: Reviewing literature dealing with the traditional parameters (e.g. hot/cold dichotomy, organoleptic properties, doctrine of signatures) influencing the selection and transmission of plant use in a juxtaposition to our recent finding of causal influence of text on local plant use. Discussing the passing down of knowledge by text as a special case of oblique/one-to-many knowledge transmission. Results: Historical texts on materia medica, popular books on plant use, clinical studies, and informants of ethnobotanical field studies generate a circle of information and knowledge, which progressively conditions the results of ethnobotanical field studies. While text reporting on phytotherapeutical trends may cause innovation through the introduction of "new" applications to local customs, persistently repeating well established folk remedies leads to the consolidation of such uses adding a conservative dimension to a local pharmacopoeia, which might not actually be there to that extent. Conclusions: Such a "shaping" of what might appear to be the results of a field investigation is clearly outside the ordinary principles of scientific enquiry. The traditional pillars of ethnobotanical field studies - that is, "input to drug discovery" and "conservation of cultural heritage" - are also incompatible with this process. Ethnobotancial field studies aimed at a contribution to natural products research and/or the conservation of cultural heritage, as well as those aimed at an assessment and validation of local pharmacopoeias should differentiate between local plant use and widespread as well as modern knowledge reported in popular textbooks and scientific literature

Selection of medicinal plants - Evolutionary considerations for Ethnopharmacology and drug discovery

605-608<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" hi"="" lang="EN-US">Biological diversity is evidence for chemical diversity. Secondary metabolites are adaptive traits, similar within members of a taxon and occasionally also between taxa exposed to similar ecological selection pressures. Chemo diversity is thus not distributed evenly across plant biodiversity. But how are biodiversity, drug discovery, traditional medicines and ethno pharmacology related? Only 62 out of a total of 457 Angiosperm and Gymnosperm plant families are used as a source for biomedical drugs (Zhu et al., 2011, PNAS). Plant taxa used in traditional and local medicines belong to an over-proportional extent to the same 62 families. A cross-check with the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website showed that these 62 families are over-proportionally species-rich and widespread. We hypothesized that as a function of evolution, widespread taxa contain a broader range of ecological information encoded in their genes with respect to taxa with a local evolution history (Leonti et al., 2013, JEP). We argued that as a consequence widespread taxa synthesize metabolites with a wider ecological than taxa with a geographically limited geographical distribution.</span

The co-evolutionary perspective of the food-medicine continuum and wild gathered and cultivated vegetables

Accumulated evidence suggests that our genes are still adapted to a pre-agriculturalist diet, which was devoid of refined sugars and dairy products and that our modern dietary behaviour is in great part responsible for several modern life style diseases. Especially the consumption of fruits, spices and vegetables, cultivated or gathered from the wild, are perceived as being healthy or endowed with a prophylactic effect and therefore many of these dietary items are regarded as both at the same time: food and medicine. I argue that green leafy vegetables began to contribute substantially to the human diet only with the beginning of agriculture, when the ecological niche of weeds began to prosper. Wild gathered vegetables added to the agriculturalists' dietary need in form of a back-up resource in times of shortage and in form of micronutrients and allelochemicals promoting the development of the modern pharmacopoeias. Similarly to wild gathered foods are cultivated staples recently getting more attention by phytochemists and pharmacologists. Especially local cultivars and agro-ecotypes may present interesting opportunities for phytochemical and pharmacological analysis in the attempt of identifying bioactive dietary allelochemicals. Chemical and biological characterization of local crop cultivars serves for the selection of varieties with specific nutraceutical properties. Germplasm can be obtained from several local organizations, which arrange easy access to seeds and products of rare crop cultivars, foster their commercialization and secure catering through the conservation of agro-biodiversit