Herbal mixtures in traditional medicine in Northern Peru

Abstract

The investigation of plant mixtures used in traditional medicine in Northern Peru yielded a total of 974 herbal preparations used to treat 164 different afflictions. Psychosomatic disorders were, with almost 30% of all recipes applied, the most important afflictions treated. In most cases, healers used only one or two mixtures to treat an illness. However, up to 49 different preparations were used to treat the same disease. This indicates a high degree of experimentation. Altogether 330 plant species, representing almost 65% of the medicinal flora used in the region were applied in mixtures. The overwhelming number of plant mixtures contained 2-7 different plant species, although in the most extreme case 27 distinct species were included. The cluster analysis confirmed that mixtures used for applications like inflammations, infections and blood purification, as well as cough, cold, bronchitis or other respiratory disorders, or urinary infection and kidney problems had similar floristic compositions. Mixtures used for nervous system disorders, anxiety and heart problems often had a similar composition

Brazilian Propolis: A Natural Product That Improved the Fungicidal Activity by Blood Phagocytes

“…According to Bussmann et al [64], the therapeutic success of the mixtures of natural origin may be associated with an intrinsic relationship between the compounds they contain, given that the studies of the activity of individual substances that comprise these mixtures have been shown to be inactive or toxic.…”

Asháninka medicinal plants: a case study from the native community of Bajo Quimiriki, Junín, Peru

“…At the same time these families are often targeted during taxonomic approaches to drug discovery for their rich content of secondary compounds like steroids and alkaloids [46] and many of their species are well-known South American medicinal plants [49,50]. The prevalence of Asteraceae among local pharmacopoeias is reported in many other South American studies [25,27,62,63]. The Araceae family was of particular importance in the community: 17 species were indicated for medical use by the informants, while the previously mentioned study among the Yanesha [60] recorded the medicinal use of ten species in this family.…”

Fragaria vesca L. Rosaceae

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