Abstract
BackgroundThe study is a survey of the traditional uses of plants in the Ancona district, in the Marche region, Central Italy.MethodsThe information derives from ethnobotanical investigations conducted with an open questionnaire among the rural population in three areas of the Ancona district that are representative of the socio-economic and environmental assets of the entire district: the Mount Conero area on the Adriatic coast; the municipality of Osimo, as an inland hilly area; and the ‘Gola della Rossa–Frasassi’ area, in the Apennines.ResultsA total of 120 informants cited 195 species. The ethnobotanical data concern medicinal (122 species), food (119), veterinary (53), superstitious/religious (61), cosmetic (30), domestic (27), dyeing (17), recreational (17), repellent (15), craft (10), and miscellaneous (29) uses, along with inclusion in local sayings and proverbs (25). The species with the greatest number of categories of use here was Sambucus nigra L. Among the other species with the greatest numbers of categories of use, there were Matricharia chamomilla L., Salvia officinalis L., Urtica dioica L., Papaver roheas L., and Rosa canina L. For each use, comparisons with national and regional literature were made.ConclusionsSome uses are commonly known across the three areas; others are sectoral and are new for the Marche region. The survey increases our present-day knowledge of the traditional local uses of plants in the Marche region, in terms of medicinal and food uses, and of ethnobotanical aspects as a whole, which will allow many of these uses to be preserved in the future.
Highlights
The study is a survey of the traditional uses of plants in the Ancona district, in the Marche region, Central Italy
The uses of the species of ethnobotanical interest With regards to the wild plant species used in these three areas of Ancona district, the analysis shows that the species with the greatest number of categories of use here was Sambucus nigra L.: the flowers had medicinal and food purposes; the fruit had dyeing uses and were used in the veterinary sector (‘to revive the colour of the tails of the cows to sell’) and to produce ink; the wood was used to produce tools; and the entire plant had superstitious/religious uses, to name just a few
The surveys carried out in these three study areas in the Ancona district led to the identification of ethnobotanical uses for 195 species, 184 of which were wild and 11 were cultivated
Summary
The study is a survey of the traditional uses of plants in the Ancona district, in the Marche region, Central Italy. The use of wild plants in Italian rural communities was a common practice, especially in the traditional sharecropping rural society of Central Italy that was largely based on self-sufficiency through self-consumption [1]. In this kind of society, in addition to the most common kind of uses as medicines and food, a lot of plants were used for many different aspects of daily life, such as craft work and home tools. The aims were to Collect the traditional knowledge about wild plant uses that still remains in the population of central Marche; Compare data collected with the literature on regional and national ethnobotanical surveys; Identify new uses according to the Ancona district Three areas among the rural populations of the Ancona district that are representative of the socio-economic and environmental assets of the entire district were chosen for Lucchetti et al Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (2019) 15:9 this study: the Mount Conero area on the Adriatic coast; the municipality of Osimo, as an inland hilly area; and the Gola della Rossa–Frasassi area, in the Apennines.
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