Abstract
ABSTRACT The cultural importance of medicinal plants has been measured in terms of popularity (number of people who know a plant) and versatility (number of therapeutic indications mentioned for a plant). Previous works have provided evidence about some drivers of medicinal plant importance, such as attributes of availability, efficiency, palatability and taste. The present study tested whether local perception of efficiency, availability (ease of acquisition), palatability (degree of pleasantness), and taste influence the popularity and versatility of medicinal plants in two rural communities of Buique, Brazil. Free-listing was applied to identify the medicinal plants known/utilized in the communities, while semi-structured interviews were performed to collect more information about the plants. Informants participated in exercises to score the plant-parts that they knew and used. Statistical analysis was performed through multiple linear regressions, with none of the models retaining all variables as explanatory for popularity and versatility. However, availability and efficiency jointly explained versatility in one of the communities, while palatability was inversely related to versatility and popularity in the other. This study demonstrated that the studied individuals select plants differently, which makes exposing the driving forces of such differences a challenge.
Highlights
Several studies have measured the importance of medicinal plants in terms of their popularity (Ali-Shtayeh et al 2000; Nortje & Van-Wyk 2015) and/or versatility (Cartaxo et al 2010; Ribeiro et al 2014; Saraiva et al 2015)
The cultural importance of medicinal plants has been measured in terms of popularity and versatility
The differences between popularity and versatility reside in the fact that, while the first measures the quantity of people who know a given plant (Ali-Shtayeh et al 2000), the second indicates the number of therapeutic indications mentioned for it (Albuquerque et al 2007)
Summary
Several studies have measured the importance of medicinal plants in terms of their popularity (Ali-Shtayeh et al 2000; Nortje & Van-Wyk 2015) and/or versatility (Cartaxo et al 2010; Ribeiro et al 2014; Saraiva et al 2015). Previous studies have provided clues to some factors that may influence the selection of medicinal plants, such as availability (Lucena et al 2007), efficiency (Araújo et al 2008), taste (Medeiros et al 2015), and palatability (Drewnowski & Gomez-Carneros 2000; Albuquerque 2006). These studies, have evaluated the influence of these factors in isolation since their research questions did not require a joint analysis. A few studies have aimed at identifying a set of criteria that together influence
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