Animal Remedies Research Articles

Prescribing and sales of intramammary antimicrobials in Ireland in 2019 and 2020: the role of milk purchasers

BackgroundIn Ireland between 2008 and 2022, intramammary antimicrobial (AM) products could be prescribed by a veterinary practitioner under what was known as Schedule 8 (or remote) prescribing. Under this prescribing route, an annual herd visit was not required when criteria were met as outlined in Animal Remedies Regulation 2007 to 2017 (statutory instruments No. 786/2007 and 558/2017). Under this prescribing route, the responsibilities of the milk purchaser, the farmer and the veterinary practitioner were each outlined, and a written mastitis control programme (MCP) was required. Milk purchasers implemented MCPs on participating farms (so-called MCP herds) with support from veterinary practitioner(s) who undertook Schedule 8 prescribing of intramammary AM tubes. This study seeks a clearer understanding of the role of milk purchasers in the prescribing and sale of intramammary AM products in Ireland during 2019 and 2020, whilst this Regulation was in force. Specifically, the study sought insights into the role of milk purchasers in the prescribing and sale of intramammary AM products in the Irish dairy industry during 2019 and 2020, using anonymised and highly aggregated milk purchaser data. The study also provided insights into milk quality among supplying herds during this period.MethodsFor this study, we had access to anonymised, highly aggregated data from all milk purchasers that operated a MCP on at least some of their supplying herds during 2019 or 2020. Data collection was undertaken by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine. Data analysis was primarily descriptive.ResultsData were available on 11 milk purchasers (64.7% of all) and 13,251 supplying herds. Of these, 52% were MCP herds. The quality of milk from supplying herds varied significantly by month, year and milk purchaser. During 2019 and 2020, there was a single Schedule 8 prescriber (a private veterinary practitioner prescribing intramammary AMs as part of a MCP), on average, for 549.3 herds. The sale of intramammary AM products through milk purchasers represented 15.2% and 26.9% of national sales in in-lactation and dry cow tubes, respectively. There was an overall 2% increase in sales through milk purchasers between 2019 and 2020. Few European Medicines Agency (EMA) category B (‘Restrict’) intramammary AM products were sold by milk purchasers. For both in-lactation and dry cow tubes, there was a statistically significant association between EMA classification and route of sale (through milk purchasers or otherwise).ConclusionsThe study findings provide important insights into mastitis control and intramammary AM stewardship in the Irish dairy industry. Significant differences between milk purchasers were observed in the quality of milk, as measured through somatic cell count (SCC) values, from supplying herds. This warrants further research. In the context of intramammary AM prescribing, veterinary oversight under the Animal Remedies Regulation 2007 to 2017 was very limited during 2019 and 2020. There were also significant associations between EMA classification and route of sale during 2019 and 2020, reinforcing the need for Irish veterinary practitioners to move away from EMA category B intramammary AMs. Higher quality data are needed to address important industry questions. Specifically it is recommended that national bulk tank SCC data are made available for public good research. Past experiences with Schedule 8 prescribing (no longer permitted from 28 January 2022) may influence current efforts towards improved intramammary AM stewardship.

Issues of Georgian traditional medicine and history of medicines (Ethnohistorical parallels)

In the ancient Georgian written sources, the combination of the healing methods given in the ancient medical carabiners with folk recipes has clearly shown that several effective remedies are still preserved in the folk memory. Researcher N. Mindadze notes: "It is not excluded that some medicines were established in folk medicine under the influence of Georgian official medicine" [N. Mindadze, N. Chirgadze, 2005, p. 53].  Medication has the same long history as medicine, in the modern sense of the term. That is, from the moment when the primitive people "from the expulsion of evil spirits (for which they used various spells, talismans and amulets), began to take practical measures of healing, which was manifested first in the use of heat and cold, and then herbs, minerals and animals. From animal remedies - milk, snake skin and turtle shell. But most of the medicines, at least, were of plant origin, for example cassia, myrrh, kvliavi (root), part of the cut seed, part of the roots, branches, date palm, etc.Plants were preserved, stored in small portions or prepared in powder form. By that time, various chemical-technological processes were known (filtration, dilution, crushing, distillation, drying, steam extraction), on the basis of which primitive pharmaceutical technology was created.

Herbal, Animal and Mineral Remedies in Burn Wound: a review of Persian Traditional Medicine literature

Background: Burn wound is one of the most common injuries worldwide. However, its management still remains a health concern and research is ongoing for more efficient therapies. Persian medicine has described different methods in this regard. Previous reviews have mostly focused on the herbal-based therapies for burn management. Hence, the current study aimed to review both non-herbal and herbal-based therapies used in Persian medicine for their burn healing properties, and to compare them with new evidence.Method: The most important texts of Persian medicine were reviewed for burn wound classification, managements and treatment approaches. Moreover, herbal, minerals, and animal-based products claimed to possess burn wound healing activity, were extracted. In the next step, digital databases were searched to find new supporting data for the extracted-traditional remedies and their healing mechanisms.Results: More than one hundred traditional medicinal herbs, minerals, and animal-based products have been recommended to treat burn wound in Persian medicine among them, the healing effect of thirty-five herbs and eight non-herbal treatments (mineral and animal-based compounds) were supported by new evidence. Otherwise, there was not new evidence reporting the healing effect of seventy-three herbs and sixteen non-herbal compounds extracted from Persian Medicine literature.Conclusion: Although some managements of burn wounds in Persian medicine have been confirmed by new evidence, the efficacy of a plenty of materials needs to be methodically evaluated. Hence, it could introduce new clues for future research.

Vaccination practices for Leptospira spp. on New Zealand dairy farms

ABSTRACT Aims To describe leptospiral vaccination practices in dairy herds in New Zealand and evaluate conformity with best practice guidelines issued by the New Zealand Veterinary Association using data from a questionnaire administered by participating veterinary practices. Methods A cross-sectional study of 200 randomly selected dairy farms stratified by herd size and region throughout New Zealand was conducted from January to April 2016 to investigate leptospiral vaccination practices in dairy herds in New Zealand. Using a pre-tested questionnaire administered during a face-to-face interview, vaccination practice details such as vaccine types, time, and age of vaccination and whether vaccines were administered by veterinary or farm staff, were collected. Results Leptospiral vaccination programmes had been implemented on 199/200 (99.5 (95% CI = 97.2–99.9)%) farms, and on 178 (89.4%) of those, programmes had been running for ≥5 years. Most farmers used bivalent vaccines containing antigens for leptospiral serovars Pomona and Hardjo (144/179 (80.4%) in calves, 112/167 (60.7%) in heifers, and 112/163 (68.7%) in cows), rather than trivalent vaccines which also include antigens for L. interrogans serovar Copenhageni. In total, 123/200 (61.5%) of farmers purchased only vaccinated animals but 51/199 (25.6%) were unsure of the vaccination status of purchased cattle. Sixty-one percent (105/172) of farmers had other livestock on their farms and of them, 78/186 (42%) vaccinated some or all for Leptospira spp. Leptospiral vaccines were administered always or sometimes with other animal remedies on 30/190 (15.8%) and 91/190 (47.9%) of farms, respectively. Most farmers had not made changes to their vaccination programme in the previous 5 years. Timing of first vaccination of calves ranged from 2 weeks to 10 months of age, with 112/189 (59.3%) vaccinating by 4 months of age. Approximately half of the farms followed the best practice guideline for the timing of vaccinations for calves (high-risk farms; 67/162; 41.4%) heifers (72/165, 43.6%), and cows (171/184; 92.9%). Conclusions The results of this survey suggest that there is almost universal adoption of leptospiral vaccination for dairy cattle in New Zealand. However, there remain areas for improvement regarding the proportion of farmers following best practice guidelines and refinement of vaccination programmes, particularly with respect to timing of vaccination in calves.

FARMACIA Y PLANTAS MEDICINALES EN LA LITERATURA: CASO DE GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ

It is a bibliographic work that aims to obtain a “Pharmaceutical Look” at the work of García Márquez. It relates medicinal or associated plants, some medicinal and pharmaceutical aspects, with literary works that appear in a representative sample of the author’s novels, including One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Times of Cholera. These novels take place in imaginary or real places in Colombia in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. Plant remedies and to a lesser extent chemical and animal remedies have been found. For each of them, observations and interpretations medical, social and histórical, have been made that value the pharmacy and medicinal plants, which the author has used as resources to build the novels, regardless of whether they have a scientific basis or not. For this they are accompanied by textual literary texts. In conclusion, we highlight the masterful way in which García uses these resources and we recommend their reading or re-reading, also taking into account that at the same time it can be done from a pharmaceutical point of view.

A review on coagulopathy in Covid-19 and its Homoeopathic management

Background: Corona Virus disease (Covid-19) rapidly spreading pandemic was initially found as a cluster of severe pneumonia cases in December 2019 reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Infection with the virus, can be asymptomatic or mild to severe symptomatic disease causing Acute viral pneumonia like symptoms leading to fatality in the least possible time if untreated. The pathological cause of this is severe coagulopathies in the microvasculature primarily in the lungs causing hypoxia and later multiorgan failure. Though thrombolytics play an important role, it fail to recover the patient completely, and if so may have thrombolytic effects in other organs too which lead to complications. Selection of Homoeopathic similimum may be practically difficult in such acute condition in an ICU setup but Homoeopathy Remedies which act primarily on thrombosis phenomenon along with affinity on pulmonary organs need to be selected and administered as an adjuvant therapy for beneficial results. Primarily the Tissue remedies like Kali mur, Natsulph, Ferrum phos, and remedies like arnica, Arsenic album, Ammonium Carb, animal Remedies from Ophidia group are found to be effective equally in thrombolysis and prevents further complications. Objectives: The primary focus of this article is on causation of coagulation mechanism in Covid-19 disease, resulting in multiorgan failure and scope of Homoeopathic Medicines as Adjuvant therapy in preventing thromboembolic complications.Methods: Method: Information was obtained from the latest articles on coagulation mechanism in covid-19 research articles and importance of Homoepathic medicines in preventing coagulation. Homoeopathic remedies were chosen from the latest Articles, various original literature and Repertories and their physiological pharmacological and Homoeopathic action on prevention of the formation of thrombus and their role in effective thrombolysis is explained. Conclusion: The COVID-19-associated coagulopathy (CAC) are distinct from those seen with bacterial Sepsis-Induced Coagulopathy (SIC) and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). The CAC usually shows increased D-dimer and fibrinogen levels with minimal abnormalities in Prothrombin time and platelet count. Homoeopathic remedies are proved to be effective in thrombolysis can be thought of primarily as an adjuvant to conventional treatment for an early recovery.

О ПРОСТЫХ АНТИДИАБЕТИЧЕСКИХ СРЕДСТВАХ ПО АВИЦЕННЕ

Objective: To study the principles of the use of anti-diabetic drugs in the medical system of Avicenna based on the features of the «mizaj» of medicines. Methods: For the analysis the understanding of the Avicenna processes of diabetes genesis, the treatment of diabetes and its prevention, screening of his works was carried out: all the books of the five-volume «Canon of Medicine», medical treatises «Al-Vohiya» («Recipe Code»), «Ash-Shifa» («Book of Healing»), «The Treatise on Medical Care», «The Treatise on Medicines», «The Treatise on Heart Medication», «The Treatise on Pulse». Results: Screening of Avicenna’s works allowed allocating 84 medicines used for diabetes therapy and prevention. Most of the remedies have plant origins, including gums and gum-resins. The list also contains mineral and animal remedies. Most anti-diabetic remedies on Avicenna have «hot nature», i.e. warming and leaching properties. Cooling action with «cold nature» products was aimed at reducing the body’s fluid loss in diabetes. The combination of Avicenna’s various remedies recommended balances their effects on the body and alternating their use will add the correction of the «mizaj» in diabetes. Conclusion: Treatment of diabetes, as a condition of poly-morbidity with numerous metabolic disorders, requires taking into account the relationship between multicomponent phytochemical composition, the versatility of the range of therapeutic actions of natural origin remedies and the features of the «mizaj» of the patient’s body Keywords: «Canon of Medicine», antidiabetic medicines, Avicenna, «mizaj», «hot nature».

Traditional knowledge about plant, animal, and mineral-based remedies to treat cattle, pigs, horses, and other domestic animals in the Mediterranean island of Sardinia

BackgroundMediterranean farmers traditionally utilized plants, animals, and minerals sourced locally to treat their animals. Research is needed to understand at what extent such knowledge of domestic animal care still survives and to document such traditions for further developments.MethodsWe carried out our field study to recover ancient ethno-veterinary practices by means of questionnaires and interviews to farmers in rural areas of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia (Italy). Quantitative indices were used to evaluate the distribution and diversity of the acquired information.ResultsWe report here 98 sources (42 plant taxa, 14 animal-based substances, 15 minerals, and 27 other materials of various origin) emerged from the survey for the care of 41 ailments of cattle, pigs, and horses. Ethno-veterinary treatments, detailed in their formulations and applications, were used against ecto- and endo-parasites, gastrointestinal diseases, heart diseases, viral and bacterial diseases, wounds, sprains, and bruises.ConclusionOur survey can be useful to implement the use of phyto-therapeutics and other remedies of non-herbal origin for diseased animals, and, as elderly farmers held most of the knowledge, it can contribute to the conservation of Mediterranean ethno-veterinary knowledge.

Tropical herbs and spices from Mauritius as alternative biomedicine to manage communicable and non-communicable diseases

Mauritius, is a famous touristic tropical island that forms part of the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean. The Island is also well known for its rich cultural and ethnic diversity and for its singular flora and fauna. The local population has been relying on traditional medicine including the use of endemic and indigenous plants, herbs and spices as alternative and complementary medicine for the management of common ailments. Indeed, tropical herbs and spices have always been an important source of lead compounds in the drug discovery process. Such traditional system of medicine has been increasingly used for therapeutic purposes against a panoply of human diseases globally. Over the past years, attempts have been made to document such uses and to validate these traditional claims. This presentation will endeavour to highlight recent progress on the use of herbs and spices in the treatment and/or management of common communicable and non-communicable diseases in light of ethnopharmacological and epidemiological surveys, and in vitro, in vivo and in silico lab-based studies. The ethnopharmacological/epidemiological investigations have led to documentation of several exotic, indigenous and endemic medicinal plant and animal remedies commonly used by Mauritians in the management of diabetes, pain, infectious diseases, against women and paediatric ailments. In vitro and in vivo studies have attempted to validate against non-communicable diseases via inhibition properties against enzymes of clinical relevance (amylase, glucosidase, lipases, and cholisterases). Enzymes kinetics studies have been conducted to determine the mode of inhibition and in silico molecular docking studies used to provide additional insights on the mode of binding of bioactive compounds from the plant extracts and the target enzymes. The plants have also been studied against infectious diseases via evaluation of bacteriostatic and bactericidal activities against pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant strains, biofilm eradication potential, and antibiotic potentiating activity). Data amassed so far from the Mauritian flora has shown that the local tropical biodiversity can be an important sustainable source of biomedicines for future drug development programs.

Animals in the Periodic Table!

This article summarises the recent work of Dr. Shachindra Joshi and Dr. Bhawisha Joshi on remedy relationships. The Joshis see a clear trend of comparable similarities between mineral, plant and animal remedies. They have extensively worked on the mineral and animal correspondences and some of that work is explained here. These correspondences can be used to switch from mineral to animal remedies or vice versa. These correspondences can also be used in difficult animal cases where you may first plot a person on the Periodic Table and then find the appropriate animal counterpart to that row to find and prescribe an animal remedy. This novel and unique concept has been clinically verified in their own practice and also by several homoeopaths across the globe.

Stuck in This Place

A young woman of 18, dealing with amenorrhoea since puberty, starts homeopathic treatment in 2010. She describes herself as being ‘stuck in this place’. The absence of her menstrual cycles creates stress emotionally and mentally. Improvements with the mineral remedy Silica helped, but treatment shifted most dramatically with the author's introduction to the Joshis' work on finding animal remedies. The simple use of questions about the client's likes in nature and animals opened up new information that clarified the most healing remedy source. The themes of animals, and more specifically the subkingdom of insects, became clear and apparent with the Joshi case taking questions. The unusual description of ‘light through trees’ and dislike of ants indicated Formica rufa as a curative remedy. The client has had regular menstrual cycles for over 2½ years with the use of Formica rufa .

Medical Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacology in Latin America 2013

Medical Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacology in Latin America 2013

Traditional and alternative natural therapeutic products used in the treatment of respiratory tract infectious diseases in the eastern Catalan Pyrenees (Iberian Peninsula)

Ethnopharmacological relevanceRespiratory tract diseases, including mild troubles, such as the common cold, and also life-threatening ones such as bacterial pneumonia and lung cancer, are very important in terms of mortality, incidence, prevalence and costs. Classical medicine has undoubtedly addressed these illnesses, but the body of knowledge generated by alternative approaches, among which folk medicine plays an important role, is not at all negligible. Aims of the studyIn this context, we performed an ethnobotanical study in a Catalan region of the eastern Pyrenees, northeast Iberian Peninsula, in order to assess the popular knowledge on useful plants. We present here the data concerning pharmaceutical uses of plants devoted to respiratory illnesses. MethodologyA total of 160 informants (94 women and 66 men, born between 1915 and 1988) were interviewed during 102 semi-structured interviews. Voucher specimens were collected, and then processed and deposited in the herbarium BCN. ResultsWe collected information about 99 plant taxa (94 species – some of them with subspecies – of 85 genera belonging to 50 families) popularly employed to prevent or treat respiratory troubles. The degree of reliability of uses is high, as indicated for instance by an informant consensus factor of 0.83 and by high medicinal importance indexes for many taxa. In addition, we have recorded information on 14 animal and four mineral products also used against respiratory ailments, this constituting the first ethnopharmacological work in the Catalan linguistic area to report plant, animal and mineral remedies, and one of the very few in the Iberian Peninsula involving the study of ethnozoological medicines. ConclusionsThe data collected show a high degree of consistency and indicate a remarkable persistence of folk knowledge on plant uses. The anticatarrhal, antitussive and for sore throat are the most valuable uses. This research could be the starting point for further research aiming to obtain products that may generalise the alternative medical uses here raised at a local level. Phytochemical and pharmacological studies on some of the plants quoted here – of which we could provide material to potentially interested researchers – would be useful first steps in this process.

Treating epilepsy in Italy between XIX and XX century

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder which has been recognized since antiquity. This paper evaluates the prophylactic and therapeutic remedies used by folk medicine to cure epilepsy in Italy. The data has been collected by reviewing written sources of physicians, ethnographers, folklorists between the late nineteenth and mid twentieth century. This approach leads to unearthing of 78 heterogeneous healing methods that have been divided into 16 (20%) magical, 20 (26%) religious and 42 (54%) natural remedies. The latter has been subdivided into 18 (43%) animal remedies, 17 (40%) plant remedies and 7 (17%) other remedies.Religious and magical remedies were used with the conviction that they would be able to provide recovery from epilepsy and to ward off evil spirits which had taken possession of the sick. Interestingly, the herbal remedies highlighted 12 (70%) plants that play or might play an important role with respect to the mechanisms that generate the epileptic seizures. This leads us to reconsider the historical significance of folk medicine, too often it is underestimated owing to its use of ineffective remedies, born of incompetence and superstition.

Histories of Scientific Observation (review)

Reviewed by: Histories of Scientific Observation Harold J. Cook Lorraine Daston and Elizabeth Lunbeck, eds. Histories of Scientific Observation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. 460 pp. Ill. $27.50 (978-0-226-13678-3). Recent years have seen a transformation in the aims of the history of science, which now has more room for the histories of related topics, such as medicine. When considering science as something done rather than something thought, all kinds of interactions with nature are fair game, not only those constituted by certain kinds of theories. The volume at hand is a fine example of the current state of the argument, drawing on many sorts of documents to rethink the practice of “observation” and the significance of it for other scientific activities from medieval to contemporary moments in Europe and its colonies. The editors consider their work to be an “epistemic history,” and in that sense it continues to give pride of place to the history of thought. But readers of this journal will appreciate that its outstanding introduction and many of its fine essays bring the examination of human and animal bodies, plants and remedies, and other “medical” topics into the conversation. [End Page 468] In their introduction, Daston and Lunbeck argue that observation is a subject that not only is important but also can be tackled historically. They show that observation, as a means of finding out about the natural world, and even as a self-conscious category, was closely associated with experienced investigation, being separated from and subordinated to “experiment” only in the 1820s. They conclude (clearly stated on pp. 3–5) that as a consequence the history of scientific observation shows how our historical attention has been deeply prejudiced by modern philosophical opinions. For them, history both deconstructs and reconstructs the categories by which we organize our ideas, opening up new vistas. The first three essays—by Katharine Park, Gianna Pomata, and Lorraine Daston—establish the deep history of the subject, examining the rise of the term to a prominent place in European philosophical discourse. Park shows that medieval clerics used the word far more in conjunction with the “observance” of precepts than with looking. The normative sense of observing rules far outweighed any value placed on witnessing and recording natural events. But she also gestures toward the different values imported from Arabic texts, and notes some distinctions between the values of the residents of monasteries and cities. Park finds in the example of the later-fifteenth-century Nuremberg merchant Bernhard Walther (associated with Peurbach and Regiomantanus) a clear interest in recording a series of observations of the heavens. Pomata in her turn shows that something new appeared in the sixteenth century, when the term “observatio” began to appear as a term in the titles of medical books, associated with “experientia” and similar words. The proliferation of the plural form, indicating that carefully noting and writing up the phenomena of bodies had high value, was clear in medical works, although she also indicates the presence of other authorial voices, including legal ones. Her causal suggestions go on to point to neo-Hippocratism as the intellectual source for a new epistemology of collective empiricism. One might also ask about the causal role of alchemy and Paracelsianism, exotic botany and commerce, and other changes in the period, but Pomata makes a persuasive case for a noticeable shift in the production of academic medical literature, and how it became an example to other investigators of nature. Daston follows by describing a change in the eighteenth century, from observation as an epistemic genre to observation as an epistemic category: by about 1750, it had moved from a way of life and a set of techniques to a self-conscious “way of reasoning.” One might say, then, that observation possessed its greatest epistemic authority from the later eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century. These three powerful essays provide a fundamental history of ideas framework for observation as a method of scientific practice. The remaining essays, divided into four further sections, present case studies that are mainly focused on more recent periods, written by some of the best current authors. Part 2 explores the relationships between...

Zinc-enriched and zinc-biofortified feed as a possible animal remedy in pastoral agriculture: Animal health and environmental benefits

Zinc is used in New Zealand agriculture to protect livestock against fungal infection (facial eczema), and supplementation can improve growth performance and feed efficiency. Zinc is commonly administered via a drench or bolus, but most is excreted in faeces. Mass balance calculations indicate that excreta is increasing the average Zn concentration in some NZ pastoral soils at a rate of 0.78mg/kg/ha/yr. This represents an unsustainable level of Zn increase that threatens environmental quality guidelines. To determine whether current supplements could be replaced by naturally Zn-enriched or biofortified fodder, 20 sheep were administered one of four Zn treatments over seven days (drench, control hay, biofortified (Zn) hay and willow with a naturally elevated concentration of Zn; Salix purpurea, clone Pohangina). Blood and faeces were sampled regularly and analysed for Zn. Drench rapidly increased blood serum and whole blood Zn concentrations to above the established threshold for protection. The plant treatments also increased blood Zn relative to the control, but there was insufficient Zn in the fodder to reach the threshold level. The concentration of Zn in faeces was significantly increased by drench and willow. For animals fed willow, the faeces Zn concentration remained elevated for longer than for those that were drenched. This was despite the animals on the willow treatment receiving only 11% of the Zn given to the drenched animals. We propose that willow, grown on soil elevated in Zn to yield a higher concentration of Zn in fodder, may represent a biogeochemical system for Zn supplementation where the trace element is cycled from soil, to plant, to animal, and back to soil. Such a system could reduce the flux of trace elements entering the pastoral environment from animal remedies, mitigate future environmental risk that may become apparent due to current farming practices, and potentially lead to increased livestock production.

Medical Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacology in Latin America

Medical Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacology in Latin America

From rustics to savants: Indigenous materia medica in eighteenth-century Mexico

This essay explores how indigenous knowledge about plant and animal remedies was gathered, classified, tested, and circulated across wide networks of exchange for natural knowledge between Europe and the Americas. There has been much recent interest in the “bioprospecting” of local natural resources—medical and otherwise—by Europeans in the early modern world and the strategies employed by European travellers, missionaries, or naturalists have been well documented. By contrast, less is known about the role played by indigenous and Creole intermediaries in this process. And yet, the transmission of knowledge between indigenous communities and the European cabinet was neither transparent nor natural, and often involved epistemological, linguistic, and religious obstacles. Drawing on printed and manuscript collections of indigenous remedies, written in colonial Mexico between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, I focus on how local intermediaries, like creoles scholars, sought to overcome such obstacles by observing indigenous uses of remedies, by studying indigenous languages and by producing natural histories and pharmacopoeias in indigenous languages. Ultimately, behind the Creole participation in the transmission of indigenous remedies, one can point to political and cultural interests and to inclusive definitions of knowledge, which cut across oppositions between science and superstition, cabinet and field, centre and periphery.

Dermatological remedies in the traditional pharmacopoeia of Vulture-Alto Bradano, inland southern Italy

BackgroundDermatological remedies make up at least one-third of the traditional pharmacopoeia in southern Italy. The identification of folk remedies for the skin is important both for the preservation of traditional medical knowledge and in the search for novel antimicrobial agents in the treatment of skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI). Our goal is to document traditional remedies from botanical, animal, mineral and industrial sources for the topical treatment of skin ailments. In addition to SSTI remedies for humans, we also discuss certain ethnoveterinary applications.MethodsField research was conducted in ten communities in the Vulture-Alto Bradano area of the Basilicata province, southern Italy. We randomly sampled 112 interviewees, stratified by age and gender. After obtaining prior informed consent, we collected data through semi-structured interviews, participant-observation, and small focus groups techniques. Voucher specimens of all cited botanic species were deposited at FTG and HLUC herbaria located in the US and Italy.ResultsWe report the preparation and topical application of 116 remedies derived from 38 plant species. Remedies are used to treat laceration, burn wound, wart, inflammation, rash, dental abscess, furuncle, dermatitis, and other conditions. The pharmacopoeia also includes 49 animal remedies derived from sources such as pigs, slugs, and humans. Ethnoveterinary medicine, which incorporates both animal and plant derived remedies, is addressed. We also examine the recent decline in knowledge regarding the dermatological pharmacopoeia.ConclusionThe traditional dermatological pharmacopoeia of Vulture-Alto Bradano is based on a dynamic folk medical construct of natural and spiritual illness and healing. Remedies are used to treat more than 45 skin and soft tissue conditions of both humans and animals. Of the total 165 remedies reported, 110 have never before been published in the mainland southern Italian ethnomedical literature.

Uta Santos-König on Massimo Mangialavori

In 1995 the name Massimo Mangiolavori entered the pages of LINKS for the first time. Marguerite Pelt wrote a seminar report inspired by his 1993 and 1994 seminars in Wageningen on snakes and spiders. Although his English at that time was not so easy to follow and despite the fact that the spoiled Dutch audience had to do without a video presentation, Massimo made a deep impression. Marguerite finished her report by writing: “Dr. Mangialavori has a lot of experience, and not only with animal remedies. He has ideas about plants and showed cases of Nuphar, Phellandrium and Eryngium maritinum. But then his name predestined him to be a workaholic (Lavori: work, Mangio: eat and Massimo: to the maximum).” We clearly hadn't heard the last of Massimo. Cees Baas, who had learned Italian by just visiting Massimo in Italy, had translated his spider and snake cases into English, and several of the cases he had presented in Wageningen featured in subsequent issues of LINKS. In 1996 Uta Santos-König and Peter König interviewed Massimo for LINKS. Uta has been following Massimo ever since so I have asked her to share with us what it is in Massimo and his work that keeps inspiring her.