This work provides the ethnobotanical data concerning the traditional use of medicinal plants in Macedonia region (Northern Greece), which has, up to now, been poorly investigated. The aim of the present study was to collect, analyze, and evaluate information on the use of medicinal plants among different population groups living in Central Macedonia. The study was carried out in the area of two small cities, Edessa and Naoussa, and nearby villages. The ethnobotanical data were gathered through extensive and semistructured interviews. The informants belonged to different population groups living in the study areas and were involved, at least partially, in agriculture. Together with detailed reports on each species, data were also summarized by some indices, such as Fidelity Level (FL) and Informant Consensus Factor (Fic). A group of 96 informants was interviewed and 87 plant taxa with medicinal uses were cited. Medicinal plants are used to treat a wide range of diseases, in particular ailments of the respiratory tract and skin disorders. The importance of the traditional use of plants to cure and prevent common and some uncommon diseases had been highlighted. About 55% of medicinal plants mentioned by the informants had been previously reported to be sold in Thessaloniki herbal market as traditional remedies. Medicinal uses of some endemic taxa had been reported, e.g., Satureja montana subsp. macedonica, a member of the S. montana group restricted to Northern Central Greece, Origanum dictamnus, an endemic species of Crete, and six Balkan endemics, i.e., Achillea holosericea, Digitalis lanata, Helleborus odorus subsp. cyclophyllus, Sideritis scardica, Thymus sibthorpii, and Verbascum longifolium. Several differences in Traditional Ethnobotanical Knowledge (TEK) were observed in relation to social and cultural components of the population. Only 7 species (Crataegus monogyna, Hypericum perforatum, Matricaria chamomilla, Rosa canina, Sambucus nigra, Sideritis scardica, and Tilia platyphyllos) were commonly reported by all population groups, whereas 30 out of 87 taxa (34%) were exclusively mentioned by a single group. All groups are incorporated in the local society and do not identify themselves as members of different ethnic groups, although they try to preserve their distinctiveness by keeping their traditions and dialects. Nevertheless, our data show that the knowledge regarding the medicinal plant use was rarely accompanied by preservation of linguistic diversity concerning the plant names. This work contributes to improve the knowledge on the traditional use of plants in the folk medicine of a region like Central Macedonia where different population groups live together, partially maintaining their traditions. A part of data of this paper has been presented as posted at 112° Congress of Italian Botanical Society (IPSC), Parma 20-23 September 2017.
A review research was conducted to provide an overview of the ethnobotanical knowledge of medicinal plants and traditional medical practices for the treatment of skin disorders in Albania, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey. The geographical and ecological characteristics of the Balkan Peninsula and Mediterranean Sea, along with the historical connection among those countries, gave rise to the development of a distinct flora and to the uses of common medicinal plants against various skin ailments, respectively. The review focuses on the detailed study of 128 ethnobotanical surveys conducted in these areas and the species used for skin ailments were singled out. The analysis showed that 967 taxa belonging to 418 different genera and 111 different families are used in the treatment of skin related problems. The majority of the plants belong to the families of Asteraceae (11.7%), Lamiaceae (7.4%), Rosaceae (6.7%), Plantaginaceae (5.4%), and Malvaceae (3.8%). Their usage is internal or external to treat ailments such as wounds and burns (22.1%), hemorrhoids (14.7%), boils, abscesses, and furuncles (8.2%). Beside specific skin disorders, numerous species appeared to be used for their antifungal, antimicrobial, and antiseptic activity (9.1%). Literature evaluation highlighted that, the most commonly used species are Plantago major L. (Albania, Turkey), Hypericum perforatum L. (Greece, Turkey), Sambucus nigra L. (Cyprus, Greece), Ficus carica L. (Cyprus, Turkey), Matricaria chamomilla L. (Cyprus, Greece), and Urtica dioica L. (Albania, Turkey), while many medicinal plants reported by interviewees were common in all four countries. Finally, to relate this ethnopharmacological knowledge and trace its expansion and diversification through centuries, a comparison of findings was made with the use of the species mentioned in Dioscorides’ “De Materia Medica” for skin disorders. This work constitutes the first comparative study performed with ethnobotanical data for skin ailments gathered in the South Balkan and East Mediterranean areas. Results confirm the primary hypothesis that people in Albania, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey are closely related in terms of traditionally using folk medicinal practices. Nevertheless, more field studies conducted, especially in remote places of these regions, can help preserve the traditional medical knowledge, aiming at the discovery of new phytotherapeutics against dermatological diseases.
Phytotherapy plays an important role in wound healing. Medicinal plants have represented for thousands of years the only remedy for wound care, and still maintain an important therapeutic role thanks to peculiar and desirable features of plant phytocomplexes. The use of herbal preparations exploiting synergistic and multitasking activities is distinctive of phytotherapy as a branch of pharmacology and could be alternative, more often complementary, to the use of monomolecular synthetic drugs. The European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as World Health Organization (WHO) and European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy (ESCOP), confirm that one of the most frequent indication for which many medicinal plants are used in the European Community and in the rest of the world, is the treatment of skin disorders and minor wounds. The study of medicinal plants used in wound healing has its origins in the ethnobotanical knowledge and in folk medicine. Ethnobotany encompasses both wild and domestic species, and is rooted in observation, relationship, needs and traditional ways of knowing. Various ethnobotanical investigations that took place in Italy and in Greece confirmed the use of many species enlisted by EMA, ESCOP and WHO for use in wound healing. The interviewed subjects provided important practical details about the use of medicinal plants for the treatment of tissue lesions and they also described how every single plant, as well as every preparation, is destined to a specific type of wound. This work summarizes the medicinal plants used in Mediterranean countries, particularly Italy and Greece, for wound healing, reporting mechanisms of action, clinical efficacy and peculiar characteristics. These data provide the rationale for using different natural remedies on different types of wounds, showing that local health seeking strategies can help in resolving wound healing problems.
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