Abstract

FABBRONI, Mariela et al. Knowledge and phytotherapic practices in the City of Salta, Argentina. Polibotánica [online]. 2024, n.57, pp.263-303.  Epub Apr 19, 2024. ISSN 1405-2768.  https://doi.org/10.18387/polibotanica.57.16.

Public health systems have to evaluate how the use of traditional and complementary medicine can improve the population's health, mainly in developing countries. This research was carried out in the Salta city and the objectives were: 1) to know the plants used in urban herbal medicine; 2) inquire about the reasons for the consumption of medicinal plants, ailments, conditions and therapeutic practices; 3) know the cultural importance of plants through the Relative Importance Indices (RI), the Consensus Factor among informants (FCI) and the origin of the linked knowledge; 4) describe the plant acquisition spaces; 5) to know the perception of health personnel of formal medicine concerning the use of medicinal plants in the domestic environment and 6) to compare the diseases treated with herbal medicine and those with formal medicine. The quality-quantitative methodology of classical ethnobotany was implemented. Thirty-five participants residing in five neighborhoods were interviewed, and focus groups were held with health staff from three health centres located in the northern sector of the city linked to the neighborhoods mentioned above. The wealth of urban herbalism amounts to 120 medicinal taxa belonging to 110 genera and 52 botanical families; 63% are non-native plants and the most represented families were Asteraceae and Lamiaceae. The inhabitants of Salta have hybrid and dynamic botanical knowledge. The hybridization processes detected were fusion, recombination, new developments in innovative products and circulation of species. Three hundred thirteen medicinal uses were recorded for 63 types of conditions and ailments involving 13 body systems. The influential presence of complementary alternative medicines and the media in the dissemination of medicinal plants and derived products is noted. Among health staff, a great heterogeneity of feelings and knowledge was noted, highlighting the recognition of the use of plants by the related population; the lack of quantifiable scientific evidence on the benefits of its practice; the fear of adverse effects and the absence of formal knowledge about phytotherapy. Phytotherapy research must be deepened, and the processes of diversification and resignification of knowledge and practices about medicinal plants must be evaluated.

Keywords : Phytotherapy; Salta; health centers; botanical knowledge; hybrization.

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