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A study on wild edible resources has been performed in the western part of Granada Province (Spain) using ethnobotanical methods. We document and analyze knowledge concerning wild edible plants and mushrooms and their folk medicinal uses in the study area. Several botanical features and use characteristics have been analyzed for the species included, with special attention to their medicinal uses, highlighting a large number of edible-medicinal species. Local importance of the medicinal uses for these resources has been confirmed. Up to 135 species are gathered from the wild in the study area, from which 46 can be considered folk functional foods. In addition, 45 crop plants with uncommon edible or medicinal uses are included, 29 of these being considered functional foods as well. Therefore, a total of 75 plant species are used as edible medicines which serve to treat 36 different conditions. The local concept of food and medicine regarding wild plant resources seems not to be well established. Studies on the pharmacological properties of these foods are needed in order to establish their real or potential benefits for the treated affections.

In spite of the rich bio-cultural diversity found in the Neotropics relatively few herbal drugs native to South America are included in the global pharmacopoeia. Material and methods: In the attempt to historically explain the inclusion of herbal drugs into official pharmacopoeias we consider the disparate epidemiology and cultural evolution of the New and the Old World. We then trace the development of pharmacopoeias and review forces that worked towards and against the synchronization of pharmacopoeias and highlight the role of early chemical and pharmacological studies in Europe. Finally, we compare the share of exotic and native herbal drug species included in the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia with the share of exotic and native species included in the European Pharmacopoeia as well as those used for products registered with ANVISA. Results: The domination of Eurasian herbal drugs in the European Pharmacopoeia seems to be conditioned by the geographical extension of Eurasia, which facilitated the interchange of materia medica and the creation of a consensus of use since ancient times. At the time of the Conquest the epidemiology of the Amerindian populations resembled that of pre-agriculturalist societies while no written consensus around efficacious medicine existed. Subsequently, introduced and well-tried plant species of the Old World gained therapeutic importance in the New World. Conclusion: The research focus in Europe and the US resulted in a persistence of herbal drugs with a historic importance in the European and US pharmacopoeias, which gained a status as safe and efficacious. During the last decades only few ethnopharmacological field-studies have been conducted with indigenous Amerindian groups living in the Brazilian Amazon, which might be attributable to difficulties in obtaining research permissions. Newly adopted regulations regarding access to biodiversity and traditional knowledge as well as the simplified procedure for licencing herbal medicinal products in Brazil prospects an interesting future for those aiming at developing herbal medicine based on bio-cultural diversity and respecting the protocols regulating benefit sharing. an estimated 90,000 to 110,000 plant species (Antonelli and Sanmartín, 2011), half of which occur in the Amazon basin (Hubbell et al., 2008). With up to 50,000 species, Brazil has the largest flora in the Neotropics (Lewinsohn and Prado, 2005; Shepherd, 2003; Ulloa et al., 2017). Besides a rich biodiversity around 300 Amerindian groups (including ca. 900,000 individuals) associated with 274 different languages are living