Medicinal Plants Classification Biosynthesis and ... - Index of

Native Medicinal Plants used in the Ethnomedicine of the Córdoba Hills...
(Natural Product Alert), providing information on the chemical composition and properties of
many of the species mentioned here, which is why we will not enter into any chemical
details. It is clear that the phytochemical and pharmacological investigations of native species
has allowed, in more than one occasion, to corroborate the validity of peasant empirical
knowledge established on the basis of trial and error or other means. These studies reveal the
presence of species with pharmacologically active substances, evidencing the harmlessness of
some species (that does not necessarily imply it is inefficient within a symbolical aspect) and,
in some cases, the toxicity of others. Regarding the latter, it is noticeable that none of the
inhabitants and doctors we interviewed mentioned any case of intoxication due to the use of
medicinal plants. Although probably influenced by their academic formation rather than by
an empirical confirmation of documented cases of intoxications, it is clear that biomedical
professionals resist prescribing medicinal herbs. Therefore, and in order to prevent the
indiscriminative use of plants with active substances, we consider it is necessary to point out
the species in the catalogue that require special caution in their management or prescription.
We consider that this provides useful criteria to select species for conservational means or to
promote or discourage their cultivation in gardens, vegetable gardens and live pharmacies,
and that, when used properly, would greatly benefit the health of peasant communities and
the development of primary health care strategies with therapeutic complements.
Even when there is still no legislation for most of the applications of species used in the
traditional medicine of Córdoba, some are specifically mentioned in publications and
regulatory legislations currently in force in Argentina, under the regulatory ambit of the
Argentine National Pharmacopoeia (Farmacopea Nacional Argentina - FNA) and National
Drug Institute (Instituto Nacional de Medicamentos - INAME-ANMAT) (Agnese et al.,
2002). Table 3 shows the native and introduced species commonly used in the traditional
medicine of the Sierras de Córdoba that are systematically codified for our country in editions
1º to 6º of the FNA and in legislative dispositions Nº 2673/99 and 1788/2000 of the INAME-
ANMAT on phytotherapeutics, both in the positive and negative list of drugs, authorized and
non-authorized respectively.
As can be observed, the list of codified species is very scarce compared to the diversity
of plants of the highland pharmacopoeia. In a few years, new pharmacological,
pharmacobotanical and phytochemical studies will extend the list of authorised and codified
species, and with it the National Argentine pharmacopoeia, thus regulating new uses which,
although common among the peasants, are not taken into account by biomedical
professionals and, to an even less extent, in primary health care practices. Hence, it will be
very valuable to have pharmacobotanical studies on the plants of our province and the rest of
Argentina as those carried-out by local researchers (Filippa & Ariza Espinar, 1993; Filippa,
2004; Bonzani et al., 1997; 2003a,b; Barboza et al., 2001; Ariza Espinar & Bonzani, 1992;
Luján & Barboza, 1999; Luján et al., 2001, 2004) and quality control measures on the
products used and/or commercialized.
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