M. Àngels Bonet

Pharmaceutical ethnobotany in the Montseny biosphere reserve (Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula). General results and new or rarely reported medicinal plants

An ethnobotanical survey was carried out in the massif of Montseny, which is situated in north‐east Catalonia (Iberian Peninsula), covers 826 km2 and has a population of 80 000. From 1993 to 2000 we interviewed 180 people and collected ethnobotanical information about 351 medicinal plants, with 4023 use‐reports. Through comparison with a large set of studies, we detected 501 unreported or uncommon uses that corresponded to 201 plant species, 57 of which had never or very rarely been cited as medicinal or toxic. General results and key findings on the plant ethnopharmacology (number of medicinal plants, modes of consumption, types of illnesses treated) of this area are presented here, together with information on new or rarely reported medicinal plants.

Ethnobotanical study in River Tenes valley (Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula)

An ethnobotanical survey was carried out in the River Tenes valley, in an area of 260 km2 not far from the city of Barcelona. Although this setting might suggest that the area was unsuitable for research of this kind, the variety of microclimates--which implies a rich flora--and the existence of small villages and isolated houses made it possible to obtain valuable information. We obtained data on 209 species belonging to 60 families and here we present our findings on the properties, preparations and uses.

Beyond food and medicine, but necessary for life, too: other folk plant uses in several territories of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands

BackgroundEthnobotanical academic research, particularly in European industrialised countries, has been, and is, mostly focused on folk uses of food and medicinal plants. Nevertheless, other uses, as may well be supposed, account for a significant portion of these folk uses. In the Catalan linguistic domain, a considerable amount of ethnobotanical work has been produced, but to date almost nothing has been published on these other plant uses.MethodsWe basically used the method of semistructured interviews to collect data on names, knowledge and use of plants in the above-mentioned fields from 759 informants in three Catalonian (Alt Empordà, Montseny and Ripollès) and two Balearic (Formentera and Mallorca) areas. We identified the plants quoted by the informants and prepared herbarium vouchers. We analysed and compared the results obtained.ResultsInformation has been collected on 401 genera, 552 species, 81 subspecies and four varieties, belonging to 122 families, totalling 4137 use reports for popular non-food and non-medicinal uses (classified in 14 modalities), and designated with 1303 folk Catalan names. The informant consensus factor is 0.87, accounting for a consistent and robust dataset.ConclusionContrarily to what could be thought a priori, and irrespective of the fact that some uses are declining or changing, non-medicinal and non-food folk plant uses strongly persist in the territories considered, are highly considered by their practitioners, and may even imply some economic revenues.