Firenzuoli, Fabio

Pardo-de-Santayana, Manuel

Pieroni, Andrea

Quave, Cassandra Leah

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

English

PubMed

Biblos-e Archivo

The European heritage of folk medicines and medicinal foods: Its contribution to the CAMs of tomorrow

Andrea Pieroni

Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana

Fabio Firenzuoli

Cassandra L. Quave

Crossref

Hindawi Publishing CorporationEvidence-Based Complementary and Alternative MedicineVolume 2013, Article ID 827521, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/827521EditorialThe European Heritage of Folk Medicines and Medicinal Foods:Its Contribution to the CAMs of TomorrowAndrea Pieroni,1 Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana,2Fabio Firenzuoli,3 and Cassandra L. Quave41 University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele 9, Pollenzo, 12060 Bra, Italy2 Departamento de Biologı´a (Bota´nica), Universidad Auto´noma de Madrid, c/Darwin 2, Campus de Cantoblanco,28049 Madrid, Spain3 Center for Integrative Medicine, Careggi and Department of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital of Florenceand “M. Aiazzi Mancini”, University of Florence, Viale G. Pieraccini 6, 50139 Florence, Italy4Center for the Study of Human Health, Emory University, 550 Asbury Circle, Candler Library 107, Atlanta, GA 30322, USACorrespondence should be addressed to Andrea Pieroni; a.pieroni@unisg.itReceived 11 February 2013; Accepted 11 February 2013Copyright © 2013 Andrea Pieroni et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Europe has shared a vibrant history in the use of herbalmedicines since ancient times. Still today, it serves as a crucialhotspot for the production and utilization of herbal remedies.Despite the popularity of homemade and commercial herbalproducts in Europe, a key disconnect still exists in the dialogbetween allopathic practitioners and patients that use CAMherbal products. There is a pressing need to connect theevidence-based use of medicinal plants and their derivativesto emerging strategies of medicine and conceptual models ofhealing, which aim to be culturally sensitive in nature andtake into account the cultural and historical backgrounds ofpatients. A key turning point in this challenge has come fromthe interdisciplinary science of medical ethnobiology, whichaddresses traditional/folk uses of plants and other remedies,in both rural and urban environments. In this special issue offive papers, our aim was to showcase some of the challengesand advancements made in this field as illustrated throughcase studies of medico-ethnobotanical research and recentfindings in the study of folk phytopharmaceuticals, while alsoaddressing some of themost crucial bottlenecks limiting theirtransition into clinical practice.The guiding paper of this special issue “Medical ethnob-otany in Europe: from field ethnography to a more culturallysensitive evidence-based CAM?” provides a review of themedico-ethnobotanical field studies conducted in Europeover the past two decades, which have been focused primarilyin the South and South-Eastern regions of rural Europe.This review demonstrates that such field studies representan important foundation for understanding local small-scaleuses of CAM natural products and allows for the assessmentof how certain products could potentially be expanded intothe global market.The article also delineates how field studiesof this nature can provide useful information to the allopathicmedical community as they seek to reconcile existing andemerging CAM therapies with conventional biomedicine.Some of the problems related to the status of traditionalmedical knowledge, which is at risk due to acculturationtrends, are also addressed with the goal of fostering a senseof urgency to document and conserve knowledge concerningfolk uses of medicinal plants.In the second article “Plant ethnoveterinary practices intwo Pyrenean territories of Catalonia (Iberian Peninsula)and in two areas of the Balearic islands and comparisonwith ethnobotanical uses in human medicine,” the authorspresent the results of an ethnobotanical study focused onveterinary uses of plants in two Catalan Pyrenean and twoBalearic regions, where approximately one hundred of planttaxa have been claimed to be useful for such purposes. Asignificant number of the plants discussed here have neverbeen previously reported asmedicinal. Moreover, the authorsdemonstrate how several ethnoveterinary applications coin-cide with those in human medicine, thus illustrating how2 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicinea community’s conceptual herbal landscape is the result ofa complex ecological eco-evolution, where humans, animals,and plants are intricately linked.Likewise, a similar topic is assessed in the third paper “Therelationship between plants used to sustain finches (Fringill-idae) and uses for human medicine in Southeast Spain,” inwhich the authors describe their study of the complex inter-play between local medicinal plants and plants traditionallyused by wild bird hunters and breeders to capture andpromote the captive breeding of songbirds in Southern Spain.A fourth article “Comparative medical ethnobotany of thesenegalese community living in Turin (Northwestern Italy) andin Adeane (Southern Senegal)” serves as an example of acase study on migrant health strategies in Europe. Here, theauthors describe a medico-ethnobotanical survey conductedamong both healers and laypeople living in one Senegalesemigrant community of Northern Italy as it compares tothe ethnomedical practices of their peers living in Adeane(Southern Senegal).This study reports that the large majorityof the medicinal plants recorded among Senegalese migrantswere also used in their country of origin, thus demonstratingthe resilience of home remedies among migrants in Europe.Importantly, the authors also discuss the potential role thatsuch data could have in shaping public health policies devotedto migrant groups in Western Countries, which seek toseriously take into account culturally sensitive approaches inthe form of emic health-seeking strategies.In the last article of the series “Can estragole in fennel seeddecoctions really be considered a danger for human health? afennel safety update,” the authors discuss their investigation ofthe safety of one of the most widely used Europeanmedicinalplants and flavoring agents in food products: fennel. Thesafety of herbal products is a top concern for their transitioninto mainstream use. Recently, due to reports of estragolecarcinogenicity, fennel has been alleged to be dangerous forhumans—especially if used as decoction for babies. In thispaper, the authors challenge these allegations, pointing outthat estragole is inactivated by many substances contained inthe decoction.AcknowledgmentWe dedicate this editorial to our coeditor, Professor SulejmanRedzˇic´, University of Sarajevo, who passed away in January2013. He is greatly admired for his lifelong dedication to thestudy of plant ecology, medicinal plants, and ethnobotany inthe Balkans. He will be enormously missed.Andrea PieroniManuel Pardo-de-SantayanaFabio FirenzuoliCassandra L. 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The European Heritage of Folk Medicines and Medicinal Foods: Its Contribution to the CAMs of Tomorrow

The European heritage of folk medicines and medicinal foods: Its contribution to the CAMs of tomorrow

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