Abstract

MAGANA ALEJANDRO, Miguel Alberto; GAMA CAMPILLO, Lilia Ma.  and  MARIACA MENDEZ, Ramón. The use of medicinal plants in Maya-chontal communities from Nacajuca, Tabasco, Mexico. Polibotánica [online]. 2010, n.29, pp.213-262. ISSN 1405-2768.

Species with healing properties play an important role in traditional medicine. In Tabasco, governmental institutions and institutions of higher education have begun the recovery of knowledge of medicinal plants. Health service is one of the most common needs in the communities of Mexico, particularly in Tabasco, because there are not enough health services and because people who live in rural regions do not have the economic resources to use a private health service. Finding themselves in this situation, the Maya-chontal, an indigenous group of Tabasco, resort to using medicinal plants according to their customs. We developed an interest in the mayan-chontal region of the Municipality of Nacajuca and analyzed the knowledge of medicinal plants retained by the inhabitants and traditional doctors. For this research, we chose five communities containing a greater presence of native people. The informants were selected through the "snowball" technique and were subjected to structured and unstructured interviews. Only 26 people were interviewed, including healers, herb doctors, midwives, traditional doctors and housewives. During this process 232 species representing 86 families were recorded, of which 74.6% (173) were native species and 25.4% (59) were introduced species. Bronchial illnesses were the most common of the 182 illnesses that were recognized. Leaves of native plants, such as Epaltes mexicana Less., Tradescantia spathacea Sw. and Plecthranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng., were used to treat these complaints. Besides species that are used to treat a single complaint, there exist others that are used to treat several illnesses and diseases, for example, momo (Piper auritum), which is used to treat eleven health problems. The part of the plants most frequently used was the leaves, especially in the elaboration of remedies administered orally.

Keywords : traditional medicine; medicinal plants; healers; maya-chontal.