Ethnobotany and its links to medical sciences and public health: quo vadis?

 

 Buy Article Permissions and Reprints

Zusammenfassung

Ethnobotanik und ihre Bedeutung für die Medizin und öffentliche Gesundheit: Quo vadis?
Ethnobotanik ist eine interdisziplinäre Fachrichtung, die die Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Pflanze untersucht. Entstanden im Zuge des Interesses an anthropologischen Fragestellungen im 19. Jh., kam es in der 1970er-Jahren zu einer Wiederbelebung durch die moderne Ethnobiologie. Zwei Trends dominieren die aktuelle Forschung: die klassische Ethnobotanik, welche die Verwendung von Heil- und wild wachsenden Nahrungspflanzen in möglichst isoliert lebenden ländlichen Gemeinschaften untersucht. Und sog. urbane Ethnobotanik, die die Verwendung solcher Pflanzen bei Migranten in westlichen städtischen Siedlungen erfasst. Während Erstere Informationen für den Umweltschutz, das kulturelle Erbe und die Arzneipflanzenforschung liefert, hilft die urbane Ethnobotanik, die Gesundheitsfürsorge von Migranten zu verbessern.

Summary

Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary science which investigates the relationships between plants and human societies. Born in the 19th century, on the wave of the anthropological sciences, the interest in folk practices related to plants had a revival in the 1970s with the establishment of modern ethnobiology. The current trends in medico-ethnobotanical research comprise two main directions: “classical ethnobotany“, which continues to investigate the medicinal and wild food plant knowledge among isolated and rural communities, and “urban ethnobotany“, which explores plant uses and perceptions among migrants in Western urban environments. While the former has particular relevance in the fields of environmental conservation, cultural heritage, and herbal sciences, the latter provides information crucial in shaping culturally sensitive approaches in the pluralistic provision of health care.

• REFERENCES

• 1 Harshberger JW. The purposes of ethnobotany. Botanical Gazette 1896; 21: 146-154
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 2 Svanberg I, Łukasz Ł ed. Pioneers in European ethnobiology. Uppsala: Uppsala University; 2014
  Google Scholar
• 3 Svanberg I, Łuczaj Ł, Pardo-de-Santayana M, Pieroni A. History and current trends of ethnobiological research in Europe. In: Anderson EN, Pearsall D, Hunn E, Turner N, ed. Ethnobiology. Chichester UK: Wiley-Blackwell; 2010. 191–214
  Google Scholar
• 4 von Luce JWL. Heilmittel der Ehsten auf der Insel Oesel. Pernau: Marquardt; 1829
  Google Scholar
• 5 Ferraro G. Botanica popolare di Carpeneto d‘Acqui. Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari 1885; IV: 165-189
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 6 Ferraro G. Botanica popolare di Carpeneto d‘Acqui. Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari 1885; IV
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 7 Ferraro G. Botanica popolare. Appunti presi a Carpeneto d‘Acqui, Provincia di Alessandria. Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari 1884; III: 596-604
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 8 Glück L. Skizzen aus der Volksmedicin und dem medicinischen Aberglauben in Bosnien und der Hercegovina. Wissenschaftliche Mittheilungen aus Bosnien und der Hercegovina 1894; 2: 392-454
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 9 Talko-Hryncewicz J. Zarysy lecznictwa ludowego na Rusi Południowej Krakow: Nakł. Akademii Umiejętności 1893;
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 10 Berlin B, Breedlove DE, Raven PH. Covert categories and folk taxonomies. American Anthropologist 1968; 70: 290-299
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 11 Johns T. With bitter herbs they shall eat it. Chemical ecology and the origins of human diet and medicine. Tucson, USA: University of Tucson Press; 1990
  Google Scholar
• 12 Quave CL, Pardo-de-Santayana M, Pieroni A. Medical ethnobotany in Europe: from field ethnography to a more culturally sensitive evidence-based CAM?. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2012; 2012: 156846
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 13 Berkes F. Sacred Ecology: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Resource Management. Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis; 1999
  Google Scholar
• 14 UNESCO. Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. 2003;
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 15 Pieroni A, Giusti ME, Quave CL. Cross-cultural ethnobiology in the western Balkans: medical ethnobotany and ethnozoology among Albanians and Serbs in the Pešter Plateau, Sandžak, south-western Serbia. Human Ecology 2011; 39: 333-349
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 16 Pieroni A, Quave CL. Traditional pharmacopoeias and medicines among Albanians and Italians in southern Italy: A comparison. J Ethnopharmacol 2005; 101: 258-270
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 17 Nolan JM, Pieroni A. Ethnobiology and food security in a changing world. J Ethnobiol 2014; in press
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 18 WHO. WHO traditional medicine strategy: 2014–2023. Geneva: WHO; 2013
  Google Scholar
• 19 Reyes-García V. The relevance of traditional knowledge systems for ethnopharmacological research: theoretical and methodological contributions. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 2010; 6: 32
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 20 Balick MJ, Kronenberg F, Ososki AL et al. Medicinal plants used by Latino healers for women‘s health conditions in New York City. Economic Botany 2000; 54: 344-357
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 21 de Medeiros PM, Soldati GT, Alencar NL et al. The use of medicinal plants by migrant people: adaptation, maintenance, and replacement. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2012; 2012: 807452
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 22 Vandebroek I, Balick MJ. Globalization and loss of plant knowledge: Challenging the paradigm. PLoS ONE 2012; 7
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 23 Ceuterick M, Vandebroek I, Pieroni A. Resilience of Andean urban ethnobotanies: a comparison of medicinal plant use among Bolivian and Peruvian migrants in the United Kingdom and in their countries of origin. J Ethnopharmacol 2011; 136: 27-54
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 24 Vandebroek I, Balick MJ, Ososki A et al. The importance of botellas and other plant mixtures in Dominican traditional medicine. J Ethnopharmacol 2010; 128: 20-41
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 25 Ceuterick M, Vandebroek I, Torry B, Pieroni A. Cross-cultural adaptation in urban ethnobotany: The Colombian folk pharmacopoeia in London. J Ethnopharmacol 2008; 120: 342-359
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 26 Pieroni A, Vandebroek I ed. Traveling cultures and plants. The ethnobiology and ethnopharmacy of human migrations. New York: Berghahn; 2007
  Google Scholar
• 27 Sandhu DS, Heinrich M. The use of health foods, spices and other botanicals in the sikh community in London. Phytother Res 2005; 19: 633-642
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 28 Yöney A, Prieto JM, Lardos A, Heinrich M. Ethnopharmacy of Turkish-speaking Cypriots in greater London. Phytother Res 2010; 24: 731-740
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 29 van Andel T, Westers P. Why Surinamese migrants in the Netherlands continue to use medicinal herbs from their home country. J Ethnopharmacol 2010; 127: 694-701
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 30 Pieroni A, Sheikh QZ, Ali W, Torry B. Traditional medicines used by Pakistani migrants from Mirpur living in Bradford, Northern England. Complement Ther Med 2008; 16: 81-86
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 31 Pieroni A, Houlihan L, Ansari N et al. Medicinal perceptions of vegetables traditionally consumed by South-Asian migrants living in Bradford, Northern England. J Ethnopharmacol 2007; 113: 100-110
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 32 Ellena R, Quave CL, Pieroni A. Comparative medical ethnobotany of the Senegalese community living in Turin (northwestern Italy) and in Adeane (southern Senegal). Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2012; 2012: 604363
  PubMedGoogle Scholar
• 33 Pieroni A, Muenz H, Akbulut M et al. Traditional phytotherapy and trans-cultural pharmacy among Turkish migrants living in Cologne, Germany. J Ethnopharmacol 2005; 102: 69-88
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 34 Pieroni A, Gray C. Herbal and food folk medicines of the Russlanddeutschen living in Künzelsau/Taläcker, south-western Germany. Phytother Res 2008; 22: 889-901
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 35 Pieroni A, Quave CL, Santoro RF. Folk pharmaceutical knowledge in the territory of the Dolomiti Lucane, inland southern Italy. J Ethnopharmacol 2004; 95: 373-384
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
• 36 Pieroni A, Nedelcheva A, Hajdari A et al. Local knowledge on plants and domestic remedies in the mountain villages of Peshkopia (eastern Albania). J Mountain Sci 2014; 11: 180-194
  CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar