Ethnobotanical inventory of medicinal plants used in Central Serbia

Vuk Antić

Bakalářská práce

Abstract:

Traditional medicine can be defined as the set of traditional knowledge about the uses of plants, practices, treatments and methods shared within the human societies in order to improve the health of its inhabitants. This traditional knowledge has been reduced due to the modern medicine and kept in the most rural areas of Serbia.Ethnobotanical and sociodemographical data was collected using 100 intervews to the studied area inhabitants between 20 and 61 years old. A 64% of the studied population were women and 36% were men.The results show that 60 plant species belonging to 23 families are used for medicinal purposes in Central Serbia. The most used families of plants are Asteraceae (12 species, 20%); and Lamiaceae (11 species, 18.33%). Those species are used the most for skin diseases, digestive tract diseases and respiratory diseases.According to the index “MUV”, the most used species are Hypericum perforatum (5.26%) then Saturea Montana (5.55%) and third position are sharing Mentha Spicata and Ocimum Basilicum with (6.66%).As regards to the parts of plant people from this part of Serbia are using the most leaves (31.25%) then flowers (21.43%),there is high percentage that uses the whole plant form with (15.18%), fruits (12.5%), roots (10.71%) and steams (8.05 %).Medicinal herbs are mostly used in form of infusion (51.38%); tincture and compression are in the second position with a 12.84 %. On the third place we have the consumption as spices (9.17%).The oldest peope in the villages still keep the knowledge on the less and less frequent medicinal use of plants. Younger people can hardly identify the traditional uses of them. That is why the conservation of this traditional knowledge of the plants' applications can be considered important in order to not to lose the valuable heritage that our predecessors left for the present generations.

Keywords

Balkan peninsula, Ethnobotany, Medicinal plants, Central Serbia, Indigenous knowledge, Traditional medicine

Jazyk práce: angličtina

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 18. 4. 2019

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedoucí: prof. Ing. Eloy Fernández Cusimamani, Ph.D.

Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze

Fakulta tropického zemědělství

Bakalářský studijní program / obor:
Zemědělská specializace / Zemědělství tropů a subtropů