Why is change feared? Exotic species in traditional pharmacopoeias

Medeiros, Patrícia Muniz de

doi:10.15451/ec2013-8-2.3-1-05

Cited by 28 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The survey data suggests that the introduction of exotic species into the local pharmacopoeia of a studied community may involve the need for therapeutic diversification, or the desire to extend the spectrum of treated disorders in the community by using exotic plants [ 3 , 30 ]. Thus, the phenomenon of acculturation, or the loss of knowledge, discussed by Caniago and Siebert [ 12 ] can be seen as an adaptive response to environmental changes and/or a search for new chemical compounds [ 13 ] and not simply a process of loss of knowledge.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the hypothesis of diversification predicts that the inclusion of exotic plants diversifies a local therapeutic repertoire, contributing to the treatment of a broader range of therapeutic targets and, in some cases, treats diseases which native species do not [ 1 , 3 ]. Thus, treating the incorporation of exotic plants into a pharmacopoeia as acculturation and/or loss of knowledge should be viewed with caution because this perspective often ignores the fact that knowledge systems are dynamic and may contain strong adaptive components [ 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What Factors Guide the Selection of Medicinal Plants in a Local Pharmacopoeia? A Case Study in a Rural Community from a Historically Transformed Atlantic Forest Landscape

Silva

Ramos

2018

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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The criteria that local people use for selecting medicinal plants have been a recurrent topic in pharmacology and ethnobotany. Two of the current hypotheses regarding this phenomenon, ecological apparency and diversification, attempt to explain the inclusion of “apparent” and “non-apparent” and native and exotic taxa, respectively, in local pharmacopoeia. This study addresses the following questions: Do “apparent” and “non-apparent” medicinal plants have the same importance in local pharmacopoeia? Do “non-apparent” plants occupy more local categories of diseases than “apparent” plants? Do native and exotic medicinal plants have the same importance? Do exotic and native plants occupy different local categories of diseases? This study was conducted with householders of a community from Northeastern Brazil. Out of the 66 plant species cited, most were herbs (39 species), followed by trees and shrubs (27). Herbaceous species also occupied more local categories of diseases (51) than tree and shrub species (28). Furthermore, most of the species cited by the informants were exotic (42). Out of the 94 therapeutic applications cited in this research, 65 were treated with exotic species and 29 with native species, distributed among 13 body systems. These results support both the hypotheses of ecological apparency and diversification.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Factors Guide the Selection of Medicinal Plants in a Local Pharmacopoeia? A Case Study in a Rural Community from a Historically Transformed Atlantic Forest Landscape

Silva

Ramos

2018

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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“…Also, the number of useful herbaceous species was higher in teak than in mahogany and non-rehabilitated stands. Tropical primary forest is usually considered most important for traditional plant collectors, but as pointed out by Stepp and Moerman (2001), the use of plants growing in disturbed sites have often been overlooked as well as the use of new exotic plants (Medeiros, 2013). We found that exotic species was mainly used for food and annual species for fodder.…”

Section: Number Of Useful Plant Speciesmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…role in traditional plant collection (Stepp & Moerman, 2001). For plants with more general uses as food, fodder or construction, people often show flexibility and learn to use new species, or start using species that became common as a result of forestry (Medeiros, 2013). These species, often exotic, may therefore be more common in the rehabilitated stands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wood and non-wood forest products of Central Java, Indonesia

Udayana

Andreassen

Skarpe

2019

Journal of Sustainable Forestry

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We investigated herb and woody species at rehabilitated forests planted by mahogany and teak, and original, not rehabilitated forests in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Plant species were classified into five use categories: medicine, food, fodder, ornament, and construction. We registered 142 species belonging to 54 families known as useful species with at least one, often more, use categories. The number of useful species was highest for medicine use (107 species). There was a dominance of exotic herb species used for food and annual herbs used for fodder. The number of useful herbs and exotic woody species was highest in teak stands. The number of woody species used for medicine, food, and construction was higher than those for ornament and fodder. All herb species decreased with time, except annual native, that increased. Around 50% of the useful species occurred only once in one site, and some species showed a distribution restricted to one type of stands. Overall, our results seem to show that rehabilitated stands are doing well with regard to useful herb and woody species. We suggest strategies for plant and ecosystem conservation, especially for rare native plant species and species with restricted distribution.

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“…This could be favored by the decreasing availability of native resources and the strong influence of external government organizations which provide technical support that promotes the incorporation of exotic resources (Eyssartier et al, 2013). The use of exotic species in domestic landscapes in Patagonia and other regions of the world has been highlighted by several authors to be a local solution to various needs, since in general they are easily available, fast growing, and more tolerant than native species (Eyssartier et al, 2009;Dos Santos et al, 2010;Richeri et al, 2013;Rovere et al, 2013), in addition to complementing native species, covering new needs, and diversifying the offer of useful plants (Albuquerque, 2006;Medeiros, 2013;Ladio and Albuquerque, 2014). The semi-domesticated landscape, which includes mainly river valleys, with an intermediate level of human intervention, was also a significant site for the gathering of firewood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Firewood Resource Management in Different Landscapes in NW Patagonia

2017

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Ecosystems, their components, processes and functions are all subject to management by human populations, with the purpose of adapting the environments to make them more habitable and ensuring the availability and continuity of subsistence resources. Although a lot of work has been carried out on resources of alimentary or medicinal interest, little has been done on associating processes of domestication with firewood extraction, a practice considered to be destructive of the environment. In the arid steppe of NW Patagonia, inhabited and managed for different purposes for a long time by Mapuche-Tehuelche communities, the gathering of combustible plant species has up to the present time played a crucial role in cooking and heating, and work is required to achieve sustainability of this resource. In this study we evaluate whether environments with less landscape domestication are more intensively used for firewood gathering. Using an ethnobiological approach, information was obtained through participant observation, interviews and free listing. The data were examined using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Twenty-eight firewood species are gathered, both native (75%) and exotic (25%). The supply of firewood mainly depends on gathering from the domesticated (10 species), semi-domesticated (17 species) and low human intervention landscapes (17 species). In contrast to our hypothesis, average use intensity is similar in all these landscapes despite their different levels of domestication. That is, the different areas are taken advantage of in a complementary manner in order to satisfy the domestic demand for firewood. Neither do biogeographic origin or utilitarian versatility of collected plants vary significantly between the different landscape levels of domestication. Our results show that human landscape domestication for the provision of firewood seems to be a socio-cultural resilient practice, and shed new light on the role of culture in resource management. This approach may offer new tools for the development of firewood and cultural landscape management, and conservation planning.

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Why is change feared? Exotic species in traditional pharmacopoeias

Abstract: No Abstract as this is an Editorial Article.

Cited by 28 publications

References 6 publications

What Factors Guide the Selection of Medicinal Plants in a Local Pharmacopoeia? A Case Study in a Rural Community from a Historically Transformed Atlantic Forest Landscape

What Factors Guide the Selection of Medicinal Plants in a Local Pharmacopoeia? A Case Study in a Rural Community from a Historically Transformed Atlantic Forest Landscape

Wood and non-wood forest products of Central Java, Indonesia

Firewood Resource Management in Different Landscapes in NW Patagonia

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