Dermatological remedies in the traditional pharmacopoeia of Vulture-Alto Bradano, inland southern Italy

Dermatological remedies make up at least one-third of the traditional pharmacopoeia in southern Italy. The identification of folk remedies for the skin is important both for the preservation of traditional medical knowledge and in the search for novel antimicrobial agents in the treatment of skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI). Our goal is to document traditional remedies from botanical, animal, mineral and industrial sources for the topical treatment of skin ailments. In addition to SSTI remedies for humans, we also discuss certain ethnoveterinary applications. Field research was conducted in ten communities in the Vulture-Alto Bradano area of the Basilicata province, southern Italy. We randomly sampled 112 interviewees, stratified by age and gender. After obtaining prior informed consent, we collected data through semi-structured interviews, participant-observation, and small focus groups techniques. Voucher specimens of all cited botanic species were deposited at FTG and HLUC herbaria located in the US and Italy. We report the preparation and topical application of 116 remedies derived from 38 plant species. Remedies are used to treat laceration, burn wound, wart, inflammation, rash, dental abscess, furuncle, dermatitis, and other conditions. The pharmacopoeia also includes 49 animal remedies derived from sources such as pigs, slugs, and humans. Ethnoveterinary medicine, which incorporates both animal and plant derived remedies, is addressed. We also examine the recent decline in knowledge regarding the dermatological pharmacopoeia. The traditional dermatological pharmacopoeia of Vulture-Alto Bradano is based on a dynamic folk medical construct of natural and spiritual illness and healing. Remedies are used to treat more than 45 skin and soft tissue conditions of both humans and animals. Of the total 165 remedies reported, 110 have never before been published in the mainland southern Italian ethnomedical literature

Does the taste matter? Taste and medicinal perceptions associated with five selected herbal drugs among three ethnic groups in West Yorkshire, Northern England

In recent years, diverse scholars have addressed the issue of the chemosensory perceptions associated with traditional medicines, nevertheless there is still a distinct lack of studies grounded in the social sciences and conducted from a cross-cultural, comparative perspective. In this urban ethnobotanical field study, 254 informants belonging to the Gujarati, Kashmiri and English ethnic groups and living in Western Yorkshire in Northern England were interviewed about the relationship between taste and medicinal perceptions of five herbal drugs, which were selected during a preliminary study. The herbal drugs included cinnamon (the dried bark of Cinnamomum verum, Lauraceae), mint (the leaves of Mentha spp., Lamiaceae), garlic (the bulbs of Allium sativum, Alliaceae), ginger (the rhizome of Zingiber officinale, Zingiberaceae), and cloves (the dried flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, Myrtaceae). The main cross-cultural differences in taste perceptions regarded the perception the perception of the spicy taste of ginger, garlic, and cinnamon, of the bitter taste of ginger, the sweet taste of mint, and of the sour taste of garlic. The part of the study of how the five selected herbal drugs are perceived medicinally showed that TK (Traditional Knowledge) is widespread among Kashmiris, but not so prevalent among the Gujarati and especially the English samples. Among Kashmiris, ginger was frequently considered to be helpful for healing infections and muscular-skeletal and digestive disorders, mint was chosen for healing digestive and respiratory troubles, garlic for blood system disorders, and cinnamon was perceived to be efficacious for infectious diseases. Among the Gujarati and Kashmiri groups there was evidence of a strong link between the bitter and spicy tastes of ginger, garlic, cloves, and cinnamon and their perceived medicinal properties, whereas there was a far less obvious link between the sweet taste of mint and cinnamon and their perceived medicinal properties, although the link did exist among some members of the Gujarati group. Data presented in this study show how that links between taste perceptions and medicinal uses of herbal drugs may be understood as bio-cultural phenomena rooted in human physiology, but also constructed through individual experiences and culture, and that these links can therefore be quite different across diverse cultures

Resilience in the mountains: biocultural refugia of wild food in the Greater Caucasus Range, Azerbaijan

Diversity of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) created on the edges of culture is the key to the sustainability and resilience of humankind. We recorded wild food TEK among seven autochthonous linguistic communities living on both sides of the Greater Caucasus Range, documenting the use of 72 wild taxa as well as remarkable diversity of both taxa and uses among the communities. The most isolated communities form distinct biocultural refugia for wild food plants and their uses, but the sustainability of such communities is under threat due to depopulation, and their TEK has already entered into decline. While isolation may have been responsible for the preservation of food biocultural refugia, it may no longer be enough for the passive preservation of the food refugia in the study area in the future. More proactive steps have to be taken in order to ensure the sustainability of TEK of the study communities and beyond

Devil is in the details: Use of wild food plants in historical Võromaa and Setomaa, present-day Estonia

Biodiversity needs to be preserved to ensure food security. Border zones create high but vulnerable biocultural diversity. Through reviewing scattered historical data and documenting the current use of wild food plants among people currently living in historical Setomaa and Võromaa parishes, we aimed to identify cross-cultural differences and diachronic changes as well as the role borders have played on the local use of wild plants. The Seto have still preserved their distinctive features either by consciously opposing others or by maintaining more historical plant uses. People historically living in Setomaa and Võromaa parishes have already associated the eating of wild plants with famine food in the early 20th century, yet it was stressed more now by the Seto than by Estonians. Loss of Pechory as the center of attraction in the region when the border was closed in the early 1990s brought about a decline in the exchange of knowledge as well as commercial activities around wild food plants. National support for businesses in the area today and the popularity of a healthy lifestyle have introduced new wild food plant applications and are helping to preserve local plant-specific uses in the area

Homogenisation of Biocultural Diversity: Plant Ethnomedicine and Its Diachronic Change in Setomaa and Võromaa, Estonia, in the Last Century

When studying the evolution of the use of medicinal plants, it is important to identify what role, and to what extent, external factors and local biocultural diversities play in shaping cultural changes. We chose as a case study, which forms part of a larger project, a religiously and linguistically distinct group, the Seto, and compared their current and past plant use with that of the surrounding Võro. Ethnobotanical fieldwork was conducted in the summers of 2018 and 2019. Current uses of plants constituted 34% of the total registered use reports and 41% of those were used to treat general diseases or used as prophylactics. In total, the medicinal use of 86 taxa was recorded, and of these 48 were prevalent. Strong erosion (the abandonment of 43, mainly wild taxa used historically) and valorisation of the uses shared with neighboring as well as distant regions once part of the Soviet Union, were evident, signalling the potential influence of the centralised distribution of knowledge. The results clearly show that the plant medicine-related biocultural diversities of the two groups have been considerably homogenised, eroded and influenced by the knowledge spread through various means during the Soviet era and over the last 30 years

Supplementation of Temperate Pastures

Generally in temperate regions, beef and milk were produced on extensive systems with forage from perennial pasture and natural grassland being the main component of animal diet. Supplementation on pasture was usually applied strategically to supply nutrients to grazing cattle only when forage availability was not enough to satisfy animal’s requirements. At present beef and dairy production systems have become more intensive and even when forage from pasture continue being the main component of the diet higher level of different type of supplement are fed to the animals. Intensive systems are characterized by a higher stocking rate capable of consuming the spring regrowth of pasture, and by an increment in the amount of supplement offered to the animal. Two factors affect nutrient intake when cattle on grazing are supplemented with concentrate: 1) substitution rate of pasture by concentrate, and 2) the depression on fiber digestion. On high quality pasture the effect of supplementation on substitution rate is more important than the effect on fiber digestion while in low quality pasture the opposite occur, it means the depression on fiber digestion is what more affect nutrient intake. In winter forage production is minimum and cattle is supplemented to maintain the stocking rate needed to graze efficiently pasture in spring. Corn silage is generally supplemented in winter and in this case animal performance will be affected by the energy contents of corn silage, which it will depend mainly on the grain content in the total plant and the digestibility of the rest of the plant. In autumn the grazing diet is usually unbalanced in term of energy and protein because an excess of degradable protein in temperate pasture normally occur causing high levels of ammonium nitrogen in rumen fluid. Starch contained in barley and wheat grain or in high moisture corn are more readily available at ruminal level that starch from dry corn or sorghum being therefore those grain a better energy supplement to cows on grazing in the fall. However in several trial trying to balance autumn pasture with readily available starch, even when some effect on ruminal level was observed, not always an effect on milk yield or body weight gain was obtained. Summer supplementation on beef production is generally done to increase body weight gain when quality of mature pasture decrease and to finish the animals with an optimum fat deposition before slaughtering. Due to the importance that meat quality and composition is getting in the international market, different type and amount of grain supplementation on grazing or finishing in feedlot will have to be considered in order to produce the type of meat that each specific market will demand. Beef from grazing steers had a lower content of cholesterol, a higher amount of n-3 linolenic acid and a lower n-6/n-3 linolenic ratio. Linolenic acid from pasture would be the source for this conjugated unsaturated fatty acid in beef. The importance of those fatty acids relay on their incidence in reducing the risk of arterial coronary diseases. Pasture-finished steers had lower predicted lean yields, smaller rib-eye areas, and darker colored meat than grain-finished steers. Although a yellowish fat was obtained in steers finished on pasture, grain feeding did not change fat texture, nor tenderness, juiciness, flavor and overall acceptability by consumers. Even when drylot steers had a higher performance and better carcass characteristics, compared to grazing steers, those parameters were improved when grazing was supplemented with grain. In dairy, considering the high losses of dietary nitrogen occurring in temperate pasture it could be suggested that the amount of amino acids reaching duodenum and available for absorption could be not enough to satisfy nutrient requirements of high yielding cows. However, responses to protein supplementation on milk production and composition are quite variable and generally disappointed. On milk quality, there is currently limited opportunity for dairy farmer with grazing systems to manipulate the composition of the N components in milk by supplementing different type of concentrate. As conclusion it could be said that there is not a unique approach to supplement animals on grazing. Each situation would require its own analysis to produce at the lowest cost the product that the specific marker requires