Ethnopharmacology of Wild Plants from the Tropical Mountains of Northern Peru

Abstract

This chapter focuses on ethnopharmacology of the tropical mountains of Northern Peru, which geographically refers to the Andes of the Piura Region of Northern Peru. Ethnopharmacology has traditional medicine as a scenario of interaction that is not restricted to the use of plants as medicines. It also includes a set of traditional knowledge, practices, scenarios, routes, and meanings of wild plants that are the basis of a cultural health system. Institutionally, it involves promoting the empowerment and participation of local organizations and strengthening the capacities of local governments, to turn the strategy of territorial participatory ethnopharmacology into local and regional development policy. Participatory ethnopharmacology, in order to generate new knowledge and innovations based on wild plants from Paramos and cloud forests, commits community organizations to share the risks, responsibilities as well as the benefits of any investigation. Any ethnopharmacology needs to refer to the specific physical and social space in which a specific traditional medicine is developed.