An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used in Zacatecas state, Mexico

Eduardo Alberto Lara Reimers,Eloy Fernández Cusimamani,Eduardo Antonio Lara Rodríguez,Zbynek Polesny,Lukas Pawera,Juan Manuel Zepeda Del Valle

doi:10.5586/asbp.3581

Abstract

Despite the fact that Mexico has vast biocultural biodiversity, there are numerous regions where the traditional medicinal use of plants has not yet been studied. We aimed to document, analyze quantitatively, and preserve medicinal plant knowledge among local people living in over 40 communities in the state of Zacatecas. Ethnobotanical information was collected by semistructured interviews with 132 informants. Data were analyzed using standard quantitative indices such as relative frequency of citation, family importance value, cultural importance index, and informant consensus factor. We recorded 168 medicinal plant taxa belonging to 151 genera and 69 botanical families and used to treat 99 health disorders. The most medicinally important plant families were Asteraceae (20 species), followed by Fabaceae and Lamiaceae (12 species) and Cactaceae (five species). The most culturally important species was Matricaria chamomilla L., mentioned 140 times, followed by Arnica montana L. (62 times) and Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt (48 times). The highest consensus for use was for diseases of the reproductive system. The type of disorder for which there was the highest number of references for use (389; 25% of all uses) and plant species (67) were diseases of the digestive and gastrointestinal system. The present study represents the first quantitative medical-ethnobotanical documentation and analysis of the traditional use of medicinal plants in Zacatecas state. Despite the semiarid climate, this region is botanically highly diverse, and its flora have versatile medicinal uses.

Highlights

Mexico is a megadiverse country, combining one of the richest floras worldwide with high cultural diversity; as a result, it is one of biocultural diversity hotspots of the Earth [1]
The majority of survey participants were between the ages of 41 and 50 (29%)
Our survey showed that there is a rich store of traditional knowledge on medicinal plants in Zacatecas

Summary

Introduction

Mexico is a megadiverse country, combining one of the richest floras worldwide with high cultural diversity; as a result, it is one of biocultural diversity hotspots of the Earth [1]. Its diverse socioecological systems and traditions of plant use have provided a wealth of ethnobotanical knowledge [2]. It is estimated that the Mexican medicinal biota contains approximately 3,000–5,000 plant species with therapeutic potential, and only approximately 1,000 species have been thoroughly studied [4,5]. In Mexico, medicinal plant knowledge is evolving to treat both long-established diseases and recent phenomena. Lara Reimers et al / Ethnobotany of medicinal plants in Zacatecas such as diabetes, cancer, necrosis, and hypertension [6]. Previous studies demonstrated that medicinal plant use is limited to rural areas. Even medical institutions in urban areas of many developing countries have adopted and are using folk medicine as a form of complementary medicine to prevent or cure diseases [10,11,12]

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