Ethnobotany of Immunomodulatory Treatments Used by the Q’eqchi’ Maya of Belize

Using a quantitative ethnobotanical methodology, we identified 107 plant species belonging to 49 families used by Q’eqchi’ Maya healers in the treatment of symptoms from 14 usage categories related to inflammation. The families with the largest number of medicinal species were Piperaceae, Araceae, A...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economic botany 2019-06, Vol.73 (2), p.154-170
Main Authors: Walshe-Roussel, Brendan, Otarola Rojas, Marco, Sanchez Vindas, Pablo, Pesek, Todd, Cal, Victor, Arnason, John Thor
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adiantaceae
Araceae
Asteraceae
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Ethnobotany
Fabaceae
Flowers & plants
Folk medicine
Immunomodulation
Life Sciences
Medicinal plants
Piperaceae
Plant Anatomy/Development
Plant Ecology
Plant Physiology
Plant Sciences
Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
Signs and symptoms
Species
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Summary:Using a quantitative ethnobotanical methodology, we identified 107 plant species belonging to 49 families used by Q’eqchi’ Maya healers in the treatment of symptoms from 14 usage categories related to inflammation. The families with the largest number of medicinal species were Piperaceae, Araceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Adiantaceae with five or more medicinal species. Healer consensus for plant species was high, with 56 species (52%) being used by all the healers, and consensus for usage categories was also high, as informant consensus factor (FIC) values for each category were greater than 0.4.
ISSN:0013-0001
1874-9364
DOI:10.1007/s12231-019-09451-6