Abstract
BackgroundData from an ethnobotanical study were analyzed to see if they were in agreement with the biochemical basis of the apparency hypothesis based on an analysis of a pharmacopeia in a rural community adjacent to the Araripe National Forest (Floresta Nacional do Araripe - FLONA) in northeastern Brazil. The apparency hypothesis considers two groups of plants, apparent and non-apparent, that are characterized by conspicuity for herbivores (humans) and their chemical defenses.MethodsThis study involved 153 interviewees and used semi-structured interviews. The plants were grouped by habit and lignification to evaluate the behavior of these categories in terms of ethnospecies richness, use value and practical and commercial importance. Information about sites for collecting medicinal plants was also obtained. The salience of the ethnospecies was calculated. G-tests were used to test for differences in ethnospecies richness among collection sites and the Kruskal-Wallis test to identify differences in the use values of plants depending on habit and lignifications (e.g. plants were classes as woody or non-woody, the first group comprising trees, shrubs, and lignified climbers (vines) and the latter group comprising herbs and non-lignified climbers). Spearman’s correlation test was performed to relate salience to use value and these two factors with the commercial value of the plants.ResultsA total of 222 medicinal plants were cited. Herbaceous and woody plants exhibited the highest ethnospecies richness, the non-woody and herbaceous plants had the most practical value (current use), and anthropogenic areas were the main sources of woody and non-woody medicinal plants; herbs and trees were equally versatile in treating diseases and did not differ with regard to use value. Trees were highlighted as the most commercially important growth habit.ConclusionsFrom the perspective of its biochemical fundamentals, the apparency hypothesis does not have predictive potential to explain the use value and commercial value of medicinal plants. In other hand, the herbaceous habit showed the highest ethnospecies richness in the community pharmacopeia, which is an expected prediction, corroborating the apparency hypothesis.
Highlights
Data from an ethnobotanical study were analyzed to see if they were in agreement with the biochemical basis of the apparency hypothesis based on an analysis of a pharmacopeia in a rural community adjacent to the Araripe National Forest (Floresta Nacional do Araripe - FLONA) in northeastern Brazil
Of the 222 ethnospecies, 44 were considered to come from other regions, and of the 178 ethnospecies collected from the FLONA region, 62 were herbs (36.9%), 46 were trees (27.4%), 46 were shrubs (27.4%), 13 were climbers (7.7%), and there was one parasite (0.6%) (Table 1)
According to the apparency hypothesis based on biochemical fundamentals, non-woody plants and herbs were expected to have higher use values and higher versatility, but the results indicate that medicinal trees, shrubs, and herbs are versatile, and woody plants are as versatile as non-woody ones
Summary
Data from an ethnobotanical study were analyzed to see if they were in agreement with the biochemical basis of the apparency hypothesis based on an analysis of a pharmacopeia in a rural community adjacent to the Araripe National Forest (Floresta Nacional do Araripe - FLONA) in northeastern Brazil. When applied from the ethnobotanical perspective, the apparency hypothesis, which was developed by ecologists in the 1970s (see [1,2]), treats plants as resources and humans as herbivores or consumers that require these resources [3,4,5,6]. This hypothesis considers two groups of plants, apparent and non-apparent, that are by producing qualitative defenses, such as highly bioactive, low molecular weight compounds at low concentrations (e.g., alkaloids and terpenoids), whereas apparent plants are characterized by producing digestion-reducing quantitative defenses (tannins and lignins) [3]. Voeks [13] observed the importance of secondary vegetation, herbaceous habit and/or exotic species in the pharmacopoeias of different sites and concluded that tropical pharmacopoeias are primarily a product of disturbed sites that are covered by secondary vegetation
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