A survey of traditional medicinal plants from the Callejón de Huaylas, Department of Ancash, Perú

Abstract

The medicinal uses of local flora from the Callejón de Huaylas, Department of Ancash, northeastern Perú, are reported. This geographical area has an old tradition of herbal healing. A total of 33 species have been documented through interactions with village elders, traditional doctors and herbalists. Of the 33 medicinal plant species surveyed in the Callejón de Huaylas, six have not been previously reported, seven have received only minor phytochemical coverage in the literature, and the medicinal uses of seven other plants have not been corroborated with traditional medicinal reports from around the world. The traditional medicinal uses of six medicinal plants have been corroborated with previously published reports but their biological activities have yet to be confirmed in the laboratory. The medicinal uses of four other plants have been corroborated with previously published reports and their biological activities have been confirmed in the laboratory. The purported medicinal use of three plant species could not be confirmed in the laboratory.

Introduction

Callejón de Huaylas is located in the central region of the Department of Ancash, on the northeastern flank of the Peruvian Andes (Fig. 1). This narrow and long valley, with a rich flora and fauna and an extension of 180 km, runs north-south and is nested between two mountain ranges that form part of the Andes cordillera. The geographic area under study, whose major city is Huaraz (9° 29′ 33′′ S and 77° 27′ 51′′ W), was the center of a very notable pre-Inca culture known as Chavı́n, that flourished between the years 900 and 200 BC. Archaeological sites in the area date back to 10 000 BC (pre-ceramic period). Its diverse topography covers the provinces of Huaraz, Yungay, Caraz, Carhuaz and Recuay. The elevation varies from 1239 to 3699 m, with a climate that ranges from sub-tropical to temperate and alpine. The majority of its population live in remote villages and lack modern services and facilities. The local inhabitants depend mostly on plants for the treatment of diseases and this medical knowledge is only stored in the memory of increasingly few herbal healers.

During the second half of this century, socio-political changes have contributed to an irreversible loss of traditional medical knowledge throughout this and other regions of Perú. Furthermore, political violence during the 1980’s discouraged field researchers, thus hampering scientific data collection. The objectives of the present study are: (i) To survey and tabulate the available scattered information; (ii) to establish any association between the medicinal uses found locally and other uses reported in the literature; and (iii) to inform whether published biological studies for a given plant species have corroborated or refuted medicinal uses claimed in the present research.