Abstract:We present a comparative study on the use of wild honeys produced by insects of the order Hymenoptera in the Criollos (of mixed origin) and Polish populations in the northern part of the province of Misiones, Argentina. The principal questions of the study are: do different types of honey exist that are used for both nutritional and medicinal purposes or on the contrary: do exclusively nutritional and/or medicinal honeys exist? When used medicinally, are these honeys involved in the cure or prevention of similar ailments? The previous report of the use of complex drugs consisting of honey and medicinal plants or other products, led us to inquire about alternative or complementary roles among the sapid and medicinal properties of honeys in these blends. This question is approached from the local understanding of the role of honey in the preparation of medicines, treatments and prevention of common diseases in the area. This study is based partly on the results of two larger projects in progress in the mentioned areas.We prepared an open-ended questionnaire and worked with 16 Polish settlers, and with 23 Criollos farmers. The honeys of two species: bee (Apis mellifera) and yateí (Tetrogonisca angustula) obtained the greatest number of reports within alimentary and medicinal categories of use. They were also employed as functional and medicinal food. In general terms, we found a similar corpus of traditional medical knowledge for both populations. The relation between phytotherapy and zootherapy is evident for Criollos and Polish groups. Nevertheless, they show differences in forms of preparation and administrations. Criollos reported the use of greater number of plant species and more combinations of complex remedies.

Botanists are an overlooked group of informants in ethnobotanical studies. The aim of this study was to assess their potential as sources of original ethnobotanical information. Wild food plants remembered by Polish botanists from their childhood were freelisted by 71 botanists. The results were compared with several ethnobotanical studies: three from the 21st century and one from the mid‐20th century. The botanists listed 123 species (mean of 9.3 species per individual). Although the average number of personal freelists was slightly lower for botanists than for local key informants in two of the other studies (11 and 13, respectively), the total list of species was longer than in any other Polish ethnobotanical study. Two of the ethnobotanical studies supplied richer material on past famine plants, whereas the botanists mentioned many alien plants and plants from urban habitats not mentioned in the ethnographical study. It can be concluded that botanists are possibly the best source of information for studies of contemporary or new uses of plants, but are inadequate for uses that are dying out. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 168, 334–343.

Honey-based mixtures used in home medicine by nonindigenous population of Misiones, Argentina. Medicinal mixtures are an underinvestigated issue in ethnomedical literature concerning Misiones, one of the most bioculturally diverse province of Argentina. The new culturally sensitive politics of the Provincial Health System is a response to cultural practices based on the medicinal use of plant and animal products in the home medicine of the local population. Honey-based medicinal formulas were investigated through interviews with 39 farmers of mixed cultural (Criollos) and Polish origins in northern Misiones. Fifty plant species and 8 animal products are employed in honey-based medicines. Plants are the most dominant and variable elements of mixtures. Most of the mixtures are food medicines. The role of honey in more than 90% of formulas is perceived as therapeutic. The ecological distribution of taxa and the cultural aspects of mixtures are discussed, particularly the European and American influences that have shaped the character of multispecies medicinal recipes.

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