Ethnobotanical inventory of medicinal plants in province Imbabura, Ecuador

Lucie Dostalíková

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Traditional medicine could be defined as a summary of knowledge, skills and practices, which are built on many experiences and theories. These practices and knowledges are unique for each culture and state, but due to many reasons there is a loss of these traditions in Ecuador. Ethnobotanical and socio-demographical data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 34 local informants from Ibarra and Cahuasquí. In addition, quantitative approaches were used to determine medicinal use value (MUV), use report (UR), fidelity level (FL), frequency of citation (FC), relative frequency of citation (RFC) and informant consensus factor (ICF). A total of 72 medicinal plant species belonging to 38 botanical families were reported to treat diseases in the study areas. The most common families of medicinal plant species as depicted by its number of species (8 species) were Lamiaceae and Asteraceae as the dominant families. The highest number of species was used in the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases (29 species), this category also had the highest ICF (63.75). The main route of administration was oral (83 %) and the most commonly applied methods of preparation was infusion (74 %). Highest use report was calculated for Urtica dioica L. - 8 UR, the highest value of relative frequency of citation (RFC) and medicinal use value (MUV) were calculated for Marticaria chamomilla L. The most important medicinal plants were evaluated Marticaria chamomilla L., Ruta graveolens L., Origanum vulgare L. and Urtica dioica L. One of the widely used endemitic and native species in Ecuador was Aristeguietia glutinosa (Lam.) R.M.King & H.Rob.According to comparison of place of residence and age of respondents, population in rural areas had more knowledge than the urban population and also older generations in both study areas had more knowledge than younger generations. The study area is rich in medicinal plant diversity and associated indigenous knowledge, but still needs more exploration and study. Thus, it is important to document and save all the practices which exist in Imbabura, whole Ecuador and other areas of the world, and preserve this knowledge for future generations.

Keywords

Ecuador, Ethnobotany, Medicinal plants, Traditional medicine

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 21. 4. 2017

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: doc. Dr. Ing. Eloy Fernández Cusimamani

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Bachelor programme / odbor:
Agricultural Specialization / Agriculture in Tropics and Subtropics