Medicinal Plants Classification Biosynthesis and ... - Index of

Native Medicinal Plants used in the Ethnomedicine of the Córdoba Hills...
distilleries manufacturing a variety of products like non-alcoholic beverages and appetizers
(Noher de Halac et al., 1986; Lagrotteria et al. 1986, 1987a, 1987b; Lagrotteria & Toya,
1987; López, 1996; Lagrotteria & Affolter, 1999). Over the last years there has been a change
in consumer preferences associated with the boom of phytotherapy and herbal medicine that
has increased the number of people choosing natural products in foods, medicines and
cosmetics. These and other reasons such as not including its ecological and social value, the
lack of knowledge on the cultural norms involved in the use of these species, the degradation
of habitats, and the absence of an adequate legal framework regulating the extraction of these
species, has increased the extractive pressure on wild species with a subsequent reduction and
loss of genetic diversity (López, 1996). This situation has left at least twenty endangered
species (Noher de Halac et al., 1986).
On the other hand, the traditional cultures of peasant and indigenous communities, who
hold most of this knowledge on the natural environment, are not exempt from the current
world globalization context that threatens the integrity of their customs, identity and even
their existence. This knowledge, developed empirically or passed down through generations,
is an important element of traditional medicine. In addition to information on therapeutic
properties, it includes details on the norms and criteria for collecting or propagating species
in domestic herb gardens, the ecology and phenology of species, and the cultural value and
symbolic significance bestowed on certain plants by the community.
Taking the above into consideration, it is clear that the protection of these resources is
only possible by combining botanical, ecological and anthropological understandings. This
type of interdisciplinary investigation involves specific details on plant species and the
cultural norms of the people using them, both specific ethnobotanical topics (Barrera, 1979;
Alexiades, 1996).
Arenas (1997) defines ethnobotany as the study of the reciprocal relationship between
man and vegetation; in this sense, it is understood that instead of a discipline it is an
―interdisciplinary field‖ that interprets the knowledge, cultural significance, management and
traditional uses of the elements in a flora (Caballero, 1979). The specific interest in medicinal
flora is a topic of ethnobotanical medical studies, which use these articulate resources within
the framework of the representations and practises of health and disease of a particular human
community, in other words, within the context of their ethnomedicine 1 .
Although the bibliography on the use of plants in the traditional medicine of Argentina is
vast, it mostly relies on repeatedly quoted sources based on unknown survey sites and human
communities (Hieronymus, 1882; Sorarú & Bandoni, 1978; Ratera & Ratera, 1980;
Toursarkissian 1980; Marzoca, 1997; Lahitte et. al. 1998, Barboza et al., 2001, 2006; among
others). Specific studies on medicinal plants in central Argentina are less common, but they
have gained increasing interest over the last decades. The information available on Córdoba
is referred to the Department of Río Cuarto in the south of the Province of Córdoba (Bocco et
al., 1997; Núñez & Cantero, 2000) and other technical reports (Noher de Halac et al., 1986;
Lagrotteria et al., 1986, 1987a, 1987b; Lagrotteria & Toya, 1987; López, 1996; Lagrotteria &
Affolter, 1999). Martínez (2002) and Arias Toledo et al. (2007) analyze the intergenerational
1 We follow the criteria of Comelles & Martínez Hernáez (1993) who consider ethnomedicine to be based on
anthropological investigations while medical folklore is referred to compilations on traditional medicine
carried out by physicians.
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