Medicinal Plants Classification Biosynthesis and ... - Index of

Native Medicinal Plants used in the Ethnomedicine of the Córdoba Hills...
Results and Discussion
I. Health and Medicine of the Highland Peasants
In this section we underline the role of healers and home remedies in the highland
communities. Thus, we describe the local names of illnesses, their representations, etiology
and their corresponding diagnostic and therapeutic practices. Likewise we attempt to
comprehend, from an anthropological point of view, the logic of the practises used to prevent
and cure ailments, making special reference to the role of plants and other remedies in this
context.
1. How Peasants Name, Diagnose and Explain the Causes of Different
Ailments
A- Organic imbalances (originated by natural causes)
Originated by temperature imbalances
- “Pasmo” (Spasm): this is one of the most commonly mentioned affections among the
local inhabitants. It is described as a body spasm due to sudden changes in temperature
between the body‘s heat and cold air, or by being close to sources of heat. When the chill or
―pasmo” is produced in the head it causes headaches, whereas if it is in the chest is causes
respiratory problems like coughs, colds, bronchitis or pneumonia. Within the context of
Hippocratic notions, it is caused by both hot and cold agents. In the former case, the affection
is similar to the description of Arenas & Galafassi (1994) for ―air‖. However, some informers
believe that hot agents are the cause of ―pasmo” in the legs, manifested by tiredness and pain,
or the one producing toothaches, as they are generally associated with inflammations caused
by being near heat sources. Some people difference the types of ―pasmo” according to the
direction of the wind (North or South) causing it.
“You leave a warm place and go outside and get a cold that you don’t feel at the
time, but after a while it has repercussions all over the place, in your bronchi…”
“…its a sort of inflammation, its swollen, when you go barefoot you get “pasmo”
and I suffer from the kidneys, I get an inflammation afterwards”
“I know what a “pasmo” in the chest is: for that I give honey with salt and
“pulmonaria” which I boil a bit…and afterwards I put that water where the honey
and salt are, and the towel heats up and then its placed on the chest for that to
spread”
“Pasmo is something that just gets you –how can I explain: You get wet, feel cold,
like when you are about to get flu, as if you were about to get a temperature,
afterwards you feel weak, sleepy, you want to sleep and your eyesight goes cloudy, it
stings a bit…For example, there are 2 or 3 types (of “pasmo”), not only one. Like
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