State of the world’s plants and fungi 2020

Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi project provides assessments of our current knowledge of the diversity of plants and fungi on Earth, the global threats that they face, and the policies to safeguard them. Produced in conjunction with an international scientific symposium, Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi sets an important international standard from which we can annually track trends in the global status of plant and fungal diversity

Ritual healing in Arbereshe Albanian and Italian communities of Lucania, southern Italy

This article describes the traditional healing and magical practices of three Arbëreshë and three Italian communities in the northern part of the Region Basilicata (Lucania), southern Italy. Data include several folk illnesses not previously discussed in the literature on south Italian nosology, such as cigli alla testa (migraine), acqua nel pipi (penile inflammation), and acqua dalla bocca (water on the mouth). In addition, the article offers comparative information onmagico-religious symbolic agents, spiritual restrictions, and the oral formulas used to invoke holy entities in these rite

Folk pharmaceutical knowledge in the territory of the Dolomiti Lucane, inland southern Italy

An ethnopharmacognostic survey on the traditional pharmaceutical knowledge (TPhK) of old and newly introduced natural remedies used for healing humans in a small mountainous area in Central Lucania, inland southern Italy, was carried out using classical ethnographical and ethnobiological methods. Approximately 110 remedies of plant origin (belonging to 103 botanical taxa), 30 of animal origin and 20 mineral or industrial (non-pharmaceutical) products were recorded. Among these remedies, the common use of the aerial parts of Hypericurn hircinum and the leaves of Morus alba against cough, and the uncommon uses of Salvia argentea leaves as a haemostatic, of Erigeron acer roots to relieve tooth-aches and arthritic pains, and Elaphe quatuorlineata snake fat for rheumatism are reported for first time in Italy. Moreover, diverse medicinal plants used for uncommon medical purposes and a few biological ingredients used in food preparations with the aim to improve human health were identified. Pharmacological and toxicological considerations relating to possible applications of the recorded traditional knowledge in modern evidence-based medicine are discussed as well. The data that we present here could suggest new inputs for further phytochemical and pharmacological studies among Mediterranean folk pharmacopoeias, and also for sustaining environmentally integrated projects focused on of the maintenance of TPhK via breeding or controlled gathering activities of local medicinal species. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Etnopharmacognostic survey on the natural ingredients used in folk cosmetics, cosmeceuticals and remedies for healing skin deseases in the inland Marches, Central-Eastern Italy

An ethnopharmaceutical Study focused on domestic cosmetics, cosmeceuticals, and remedies to heal skin diseases traditionally used in the inland part of the Marches region (Central-Eastern Italy) has been conducted. At present, traditional knowledge concerning home-made phytocosmetics is represented by both the remnants of an orally transmitted folk heritage and also by new forms of knowledge, sometimes coming from popular phytotherapeutical books and the mass media (Out of the scope of this survey), but also as a result of recent migration trends from Eastern Europe. We recorded approximately 135 cosmetic or cosmeceutical preparations prepared from more than 70 botanical species and a very few animal or mineral ingredients. Among the recorded preparations, developing a clear distinction amongst cosmetics, cosmeceuticals and pharmaceuticals for skin diseases is very problematic, confirming that in folk knowledge systems medicinal products for healing skin diseases and cosmetics have often been perceived as two poles of a continuum. Many of the quoted species represented well-known medicinal plants of the European phytotherapy, although we also recorded a few unusual plant taxa, which are briefly discussed under the perspective of their eventual phytochemical and/or phytopharmacological potentialities. Exotic drugs or precious essences, even native of the Mediterranean, were not quoted as ingredients for preparing perfumes and fragrances by the interviewees of the present study, thus indicating that popular cosmetic practices in rural Central Italy have taken a much separated path away from the cosmetic "know-how" of the aristocracy and high bourgeois classes of the last centuries. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

State of the World’s Plants and Fungi

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