Traditional knowledge using medicinal plants in Portoviejo Canton

Abstract

The problem centers on the loss of empirical knowledge of the use of medicinal plants as a source of alternative medicine. The objective of the work is to carry out a study aimed at establishing the current state of local knowledge about the use of medicinal plants in rural parishes and 1 urban one of the Portoviejo canton. The method was based on the literature review on the subject and as techniques, the population survey was used on the knowledge and importance of medicinal plants. The main results of the research included the recovery of the use of medicinal plants as an alternative medicine use. As a result, it was obtained that the inhabitants of these parishes of average age between 35-59 years, had a high impact on the applied surveys of 39.1% of the use of medicinal plants and that the lowest ignorance of the use of medicinal plants as an alternative in medicine it was obtained by people of average age between 60 and over, but this is due to memory loss. It is concluded that knowledge about medicinal plants is regular since their inhabitants do not maintain continuity in their use.