Herba Cana - Northeastern Illinois University

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© 2004 by CRC Press 526 Florida Ethnobotany Perhaps comalpatli (comal, cooking disk to prepare tortillas, patl, medicine) is simply another way of saying woman’s medicine, because cooking is traditionally considered the female realm. Probably both ahuapatli [alaa-patli] andnahuapate [nahuapote] are variants of nahuac, ofanahuac (Mexico, El Salvador), meaning a medicine growing near water. Both species are most frequent near marshes. Perhaps the modern hoja de la playa (beach leaf) comes from the Náhuatl source. To the Mayas, both plants were chal-ché [chalchay, chalche, chalché, ix chal-ché, chal-ch, caal-ca] (wash quickly, Maya, Yucatán, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua). That name is an allusion to medical use before, during, and after childbirth, much as in the Náhuatl names. Several apparently indigenous names applied in different areas have not been translated. These include alinanche (Sinaloa), clina, suquinay [suquinayo] (Guatemala, El Salvador), teposa, andtewa zahn (Zapotec, Oaxaca). Perhaps the most widespread view of these plants is shown by the names cure-for-all [curforal] (Florida, Barbados), and guérit-tout [gueritoute, gueri-tout, guerir tou, jewi tut] (cure-all, Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique). Most of the common names clearly indicate medical applications. Both cough bush (Bahamas) and sour bush (Bahamas) note usage as a remedy for colds and associated symptoms (Morton 1981). Although the simple comment that the leaves are smoked like tobacco is in the literature, the many names comparing the leaves with Nicotiana surely suggest an adjunct to relieve cold symptoms. Among those names are bitter tobacco (Jamaica), Indian tobacco, riverside tobacco, tabac à Jacot [tabac à jako] (false tobacco, Haiti), tabac diable (devil’s tobacco, Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique), tabac marron [tabac mawon, tabac sauvage] (wild tobacco, Haiti), tobacco cimarron (wild tobacco, Panama), tabac zombie (ghost tobacco, French Antilles), and wild tobacco (Bahamas, Jamaica). Of these names, tabac à Jacot requires some explanation. The name Jacot [Jacquot] is used in a game English speakers call ‘‘Simon Says.’’ In the game ‘‘Jacques [or Jacquot, the diminutive] a dit,’’ one imitates as a parrot [Jacquot] imitates people. So, the plants ‘‘imitate’’ the real tobacco. Some of the names that allude to medicinal uses are obtuse as in feuilles la chose (the thing’s leaf, Haiti), fox-leaf, la chause [la chose, la choille, la choise, la choige, la choy] (the thing, Haiti), both applied to P. carolinensis. Several of the names with religious references are notations of medical applications. These include flor de ángel (angel flower) and flor de Guadalupe (Gua- dalupe’s flower), applied to only P. odorata, andhierba de Santa María (Saint Mary’s herb, Mexico, Nuevo León), given to P. carolinensis and P. odorata. Others say Santa María (Saint Mary, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatán, Belize, Nicaragua) or Santa María cimarron (wild Saint Mary). Several people compare these aromatic shrubs with salvia (Latin, to save or preserve) not only because both are aromatic, but also because both are medicines that ‘‘preserve’’ health. In French, both P. carolinensis and P. odorata are grande sauge (Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe), [la] sauge (sage, Haiti), or sauge rouge (red sage, Haiti, Martinique). In Spanish, they become salvia (sage, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua), salvia colorada (red sage), salvia de remedios (medicinal sage, Dominican Republic), salvia blanca (white sage, Dominican Republic), salvia cimarrona (wild sage, Cuba), salvia de playa (beach sage, Cuba), salvia del país (country sage, Cuba), salvia real (royal sage), or salvia santa (holy sage). Although it is not at first obvious, the name saab [saav, big-saab] (Bahamas) is probably a Creole version of salvia. Other names that note the fragrance are camphor-weed (P. odorata, Florida), canela [canelón] (cinnamon, Mexico, Baja California), or sweet scent (Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands). Until the early 1800s, many species now considered Pluchea were placed in the genus Conyza (Greek, a flea), and the Greek gave rise to the common name conyse odorante (fragrant horsetail, Dominican Republic). Conyza was originally used by Dioscorides (fl. A.D. 40 /80) for some kind of fleabane, so the Hispaniolan name follows a venerable usage although the original was a Mediterranean plant. Several members of the Asteraceae have been considered ‘‘fleabanes’’ and used to repel those annoying animals (see Erigeron). Pluchea carolinensis too is called bushy fleabane (Bahamas), hairy fleabane, and shrubby fleabane (Bahamas). Both P. carolinensis and P. odorata are called sweet-scented fleabane (Bahamas. Jamaica, Trinidad), but usually only the latter is [salt] marsh fleabane (Arizona to Florida). Their names suggest they have been used to repel fleas. Some of the names denote other uses or comparisons. In Guadeloupe and Martinique, P. odorata is bois liège (cork bush), and the wood is presumably the part used. People in Belize say pito sico. A pito is a flower, and sico may be a variant of seco, dry, probably a name used like ‘‘straw-flower’’ in English, because of the dry flowers. Perhaps corail (coral, Haiti) notes the pinkish flowers. Any resemblance to a z’orielle mouton (sheep’s ear, French Antilles) must also have to do with pubescence, as both are white and woolly. Residents of Mexico call P. odorata the
© 2004 by CRC Press The Ethnobotany 527 jara. It is not clear if they are comparing the species with rockrose (Helianthemum, Sonora) because both have white pubescent leaves, or if they are calling it an ‘‘arrow’’ (the Spanish from Hebrew khara, to cast). The common name cure-for-all is an exaggeration, but both species are used to treat many problems. Among the afflictions treated are asthma, bronchitis, cholera, colds, digestive and eye complaints, fever, gout, headache, hoarseness, hypertension, menstrual difficulties, nervousness, neuralgia, night sweats, rheumatism, sores, spasms, stomach disorders, swelling in any part of the body, toothache, twitching muscles, and wheezing. They are also used to treat new mothers and women in labor (Standley 1920 /1926, Roig 1945, Martínez 1969, Morton 1981). Laboratory studies have shown that P. odorata has antifungal, antimicrobial, antibacterial, and anthelmintic properties (Dominguez and Zamudio 1972, López-Abraham et al. 1979, Scholz et al. 1990, 1994). These traits apparently stem from terpenes. Most of the known compounds in P. odorata are sesquiterpenes (Dominguez et al. 1981, Arriaga-Giner et al. 1983, Arriaga and Borges-del-Castillo 1985, Ahmad et al. 1992a,b, Loayza et al. 1992, Ahmed et al. 1998). Sesquiterpenes also are among the most reported chemicals in other species (Ahmad and Fizza 1988a, b, Ahmad et al. 1989a, 1991, 1992a,b, Ando et al. 1994, Zdero and Bohlmann 1989, Uchiyama et al. 1991, Guilhon and Muller 1996, 1998, Mahmoud 1997, Shimoma et al. 1998). However, monoterpenes, triterpenes, and triterpenoids are known to have similar properties (Uchiyama et al. 1991, Kaith 1996, Pérez-Garcia et al. 1996). Also reported are antiinflammatory (Srivastava et al. 1990, Sen and Nag Chaudhuri 1990, 1991, Sen et al. 1993a, Pérez et al. 1995), anti-ulcer (Pal and Chaudhuri 1989, Sen et al. 1993a), hepatoprotective (Sen et al. 1993b), and trypanocidal (Zani et al. 1994) properties. Common names indicate an ancient Náhuatl and Mayan application for women, especially during and after childbirth, and suggest an original specialized medicine. With the influx of several European cultures and confusion with the Old World fleabanes, that specialization may have given way to a broader utilization. Indeed, considering the array of uses for Pluchea, it is easy to see why it became known as a cure-for-all or guérit-tout. Given the Old World use to treat poisonous snakebites, it is surprising that people in the New World did not include that among their pharmacopoeia. Experimental data for Pluchea actually indicate that it works for that problem (Alam et al. 1996). Plumbago: Plumbago or Leadwort (Latin plumbum, lead, ago from agere, to bear or resemble) Plumbago scandens. a. Flowering branch. b. Detail of node. c. Flowering and subtending bract and bracteole. d. Stamens, front and side view. e. Gynoecium, with details of stigma and ovary. Drawn by Bobbi Angell. From Acevedo 2003. The word ‘‘plumbago’’ appeared in English by 1784 although it has a venerable history in southern European languages. Most speakers of English call the plants leadwort. Both names refer to the genus Plumbago and the family Plumbaginaceae. The history of the words ‘‘plumbago’’ and ‘‘leadwort’’ is long and complicated, and sometimes the plant is inseparable from the metal except by inference. Dioscorides (fl. A.D. 40 /80) used two Greek words to designate both a metal and a plant. Pliny (A.D. 23 / 79) Latinized those words as molybdaena and plumbago, and used both for what is now galena, lead ore. However, for the plants, Pliny always used plumbago. In Philemon Holland’s 1601 translation Pliny says, ‘‘There groweth commonly an herbe named in Greeke Molybdaena, that is to say in Latin, Plumbago, euen vpon euery corne land.’’ Matthioli’s Commentary on Dioscorides was translated into French in 1572, and subsequently most French, Italian, and German speakers reapplied ‘‘plumbago’’ to the metal. Linnaeus
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