Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices on the Use of Botanical Medicines in a Rural Caribbean Territory.

Tatijana Vujicic,Damian Cohall

doi:10.3389/fphar.2021.713855

Abstract

The worldwide use of medicinal plant products has been steadily increasing over the past few decades, whereas the traditional knowledge and practices of these botanical medicines appears to be diminishing. Considering the need to conserve and document these traditions, the objective of this study was to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of people who are familiar with botanical medicines, as well as any factors that may influence the perceptions and behaviours associated with the use of medicinal plants. A previously validated survey instrument assessing knowledge, attitudes, and practices on the use medicinal plants was randomly administered to residents of three rural Barbadian communities. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and cross tabulations (Chi-Square Test, Fisher’s Exact Test), with a confidence level of 95% and significance level of p < 0.05. One hundred and fifty-four participants completed the survey with a response rate of 96%. From participant responses we found that over 75% of the study population used botanical medicines. Key findings included a diverse repertoire of traditional knowledge on the use of medicinal plants, which included a total of 29 medicinal applications cited across 69 different plant species and 39 families. The most popular species among respondents (irrespective of use) were Pimenta racemosa (Mill.) J.W. Moore (FC = 30, RFC = 0.26), Momordica charantia L. (FC = 28, RFC = 0.24), Zingiber officinale Roscoe (FC = 22, RFC = 0.19) and Annona muricata L. (FC = 21, RFC = 0.18). The findings also show the persistence of medico-cultural concepts such as cleansing and cooling, and identified significant associations between the use of botanical medicines and related practices with demographic variables such as education (p = 0.05; Fisher’s Exact Test) and health insurance, χ2 (1, n = 152) = 4.645, p = 0.003. The findings of this study can be used in the identification and archiving of the medicinal plant practices in Barbados and the wider Caribbean, as well as for the larger purposes of biocultural exploration, preservation and further scientific assessment of botanical medicine practices.

Highlights

The Caribbean region is widely recognized for its rich plant diversity, ranking among the top 6 of 25 global biodiversity hotspots (Carrington, 2007; Cohall, 2014)
Results presented in Characteristics of the Users of Botanical Medicines, Plants Used for Medicinal Purposes, Acquisition of Knowledge and Sources of Medicinal Plants, Discussion of Botanical Medicine Use with Doctor, Concomitant Use of Medicinal Plants and Prescription Medication, and Recommendation of Botanical Medicines to Others only pertain to data collected from users of botanical medicines, or “users”
The objectives of this study were achieved by the detailed documentation of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of botanical medicines in rural Barbados, in a district that has never been studied before

Summary

Introduction

The Caribbean region is widely recognized for its rich plant diversity, ranking among the top 6 of 25 global biodiversity hotspots (Carrington, 2007; Cohall, 2014) These plants are utilized extensively throughout the Caribbean in the practice of folklore botanical medicine, which originated from the intense cultural convergence prompted by European colonialism, indigenous cultures of the Americas, the transatlantic slave trade, and immigration of indentured servants from Asia (Bayley, 1949; Feng 1956; Crawford-Daniel and Alexis, 2014). (Wild Licorice/Crab’s Eye) (McCaskie, 2017) These were all important species used in West African healing traditions and are still commonly used in Caribbean countries such as Jamaica (Vandebroek and Picking, 2020), Cuba (Heredia-Diaz et al, 2018), the Virgin Islands (Soelberg et al, 2016), and others (Torres-Avilez et al, 2015). Noncommunicable diseases account for 9 of the top 10 causes of death in Barbados (Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network, 2020)

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