Medical potential of plants used by the Q’eqchi Maya of Livingston, Guatemala for the treatment of women's health complaints

Abstract

Investigation on the medical ethnobotany of the Q'eqchi Maya of Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala, was undertaken in order to explore Q'eqchi perceptions, attitudes, and treatment choices related to women's health. Through participant observation and interviews a total of 48 medicinal plants used to treat conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, menstruation, and menopause were collected and identified followed by the evaluation of 20 species in bioassays relevant to women's health. Results of field interviews indicate that Q'eqchi cultural perceptions affect women's health experiences while laboratory results (estrogen receptor and serotonin receptor binding assays) provide a scientific correlation between empirical medicinal plant use among the Q'eqchi and the pharmacological basis for their administration. These data can contribute to Guatemala's national effort to promote a complementary relationship between traditional Maya medicine and public health services and can serve as a basis for further pharmacology and phytochemistry on Q'eqchi medicinal plants for the treatment of women's health conditions.

Propagação vegetativa de estacas de Piper hispidumSw. em diferentes substratos

“…É conhecida popularmente como matico, apertajoão e matico-falso, possuindo uso medicinal como diurético e estimulante (Guimarães & Giordano, 2004), sendo utilizada também no tratamento de distúrbios reprodutivos do sexo feminino, incluindo amenorréia, dismenorreia e menopausa (Michel et al, 2007(Michel et al, , 2010.…”

The good and the bad: Alkaloid screening and brineshrimp bioassays of aqueous extracts of 31 medicinal plants of eastern Nicaragua

“…Of additional value is the standard screening of plants for the presence of bioactive compounds, and the assessment of extract toxicity via bioassays. Toxicity assays have been performed on plant extracts from the ethnomedicinal flora of several countries, including Argentina (Mongelli et al, 1996), Brazil (Quignard et al, 2004), Guatemala (Franssen et al, 1997;Cáceres et al, 1998;Michel et al, 2007), Honduras (Lentz et al, 1998), India (Padmaja et al, 2002), Jamaica (Facey et al, 1999), New Guinea (Rao, 1996), Philippine Islands (Horgen et al, 2001), Spain (Serrano, 1996), Tanzania (Moshi et al, 2004), and Turkey (Sener et al, 1998). A massive new and important project recently announced is the Herbalome Project by the Chinese government to assay for chemical constituents and toxicity the 400,000 medicinal preparations derived from 10,000 medicinal species used in Chinese traditional medicine (Stone, 2008).…”

Chemical composition of essential oils of Piper jacquemontianum and Piper variabile from Guatemala and bioactivity of the dichloromethane and methanol extracts

“…The analysis of volatile chemical components of species of Piper has shown the presence of monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and arylpropanoids with interesting insecticidal, antimicrobial, and antioxidant activities (Parmar et al, 1997;Martins et al, 1998;Moreira et al, 1998). The two species collected from Guatemala, locally known as "cordoncillo" (Standley & Steyermark, 1952), were chosen for their ethnomedical use for treatment of infection, anaemia and body aches (Cleaves, 2001;Michel et al, 2007). The study of these species is relevant, as they have not been studied before, have important medicinal properties, and are a potential source of aroma.…”