East meets west: using ethnobotany in ethnic urban markets of Barcelona metropolitan area (Catalonia) as a tool for biocultural exchange.

BACKGROUND: Ethnobotanical studies in metropolitan areas and urban ethnic markets have grown considerably in recent years as large cities have demonstrated to be significantly rich in biocultural diversity and in driving its evolution, as human populations migrate from one region to another. Urban spaces also represent important places of rich multicultural and multilingual interaction and exchange, where ethnobotany can act as a bridge between research and action. The purpose of this study is to present a case study on how to use ethnobotany in multicultural urban settings by studying people-plant interactions and the larger implications and applications to promote biocultural learning in these areas. METHODS: We inventoried the botanical composition of fresh and dry products sold in most food stores owned by Chinese immigrants in Fondo, a neighbourhood of Barcelona's metropolitan area, in Santa Coloma de Gramenet municipality (Barcelonès county, Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula), pharmacologically validating the obtained list with the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. We also participated in multiple dissemination activities and materials (non-academic and academic), along with exchanges with the broader community in relation to this research. RESULTS: In total, 103 plants were identified at the species level, pertaining to 88 genera and 46 botanical families. Including the infraspecific level, a total of 113 plant taxa were inventoried. One algal and six fungal species were also recorded, but not included in the analyses. Brassicaceae (12.4%) and Fabaceae (10.6%) were the most predominant families inventoried, followed by Cucurbitaceae (7.1%) and Poaceae (7.1%). Over three-quarters of all the taxa have an Asian origin (76.11%), indicating a high conservation of the use of Asian taxa. Over one-third (36.89%) of the plant parts pertain to species contained in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, showing the relevance of medicinal plants in local stores and the preponderance of Eastern Asian food-medicine continuums. To promote ethnobotanical education programmes, over 50 dissemination activities and educational materials were produced from this study and shared with the local urban community in different fora. CONCLUSIONS: Further research in these and similar settings can provide significant ethnographic information to better understand anthropological processes and phenomena underlying migration and transculturation that can be used in an umbrella of applications, from adequate nomenclature and labelling of foreign products in local languages to multicultural integration and social cohesion programmes along with educational activities on biocultural topics.

Which plants matter? A comparison of academic and community assessments of plant value and conservation status in the Moroccan High Atlas.

As interest in including local communities and their knowledge in biodiversity conservation increases, challenges to do so become clear. One of them is to harmonize local and academic assessments of conservation status. Here, we document the culturally valuable flora of two Amazigh communities in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains and contrast local conservation observations with IUCN and other red-listing assessments. Our study reveals two levels of mismatch. Unsurprisingly, the species of interest of these two knowledge systems differ considerably. Moreover, species' availability and populations' trends of change and the conservation evaluations often diverge between local and academic assessments. Locally valuable species are rarely threatened, but a focus on locally prioritized species is essential to ensure the active participation of local communities in conservation initiatives. Given the salient role of IUCN Red Lists in guiding conservation action, a better understanding of the differences in plant value and conservation assessments between the two knowledge systems can help harmonize biodiversity conservation and community wellbeing goals.

Medicines in the Kitchen: Gender Roles Shape Ethnobotanical Knowledge in Marrakshi Households.

Differences in gendered knowledge about plants are contingent on specific cultural domains. Yet the boundaries between these domains, for example food and medicine, are sometimes blurred, and it is unclear if and how gender plays a role in creating a continuum between them. Here, we present an in-depth evaluation of the links between gender, medicinal plant knowledge, and culinary culture in Marrakech, Morocco. We interviewed 30 women and 27 men with different socio-demographic characteristics and evaluated how gender and cooking frequency shape their food and medicinal plant knowledge. We documented 171 ethno-taxa used in Marrakshi households as food, medicine, or both, corresponding to 148 botanical taxa and three mixtures. While no clear differences appear in food plant knowledge by gender, women have a three-fold greater knowledge of medicinal plants, as well as plants with both uses as food and medicine. Women's medicinal and food plant knowledge increases with their reported frequency of cooking, whereas the opposite trend is observed among men. Men who cook more are often single, have university-level degrees, and may be isolated from the channels of knowledge transmission. This demonstrates that the profound relations between the culinary and health domains are mediated through gender.

The Role of Botanical Families in Medicinal Ethnobotany: A Phylogenetic Perspective.

Studies suggesting that medicinal plants are not chosen at random are becoming more common. The goal of this work is to shed light on the role of botanical families in ethnobotany, depicting in a molecular phylogenetic frame the relationships between families and medicinal uses of vascular plants in several Catalan-speaking territories. The simple quantitative analyses for ailments categories and the construction of families and disorders matrix were carried out in this study. A Bayesian approach was used to estimate the over- and underused families in the medicinal flora. Phylogenetically informed analyses were carried out to identify lineages in which there is an overrepresentation of families in a given category of use, i.e., hot nodes. The ethnobotanicity index, at a specific level, was calculated and also adapted to the family level. Two diversity indices to measure the richness of reported taxa within each family were calculated. A total of 47,630 use reports were analysed. These uses are grouped in 120 botanical families. The ethnobotanicity index for this area is 14.44% and the ethnobotanicity index at the family level is 68.21%. The most-reported families are Lamiaceae and Asteraceae and the most reported troubles are disorders of the digestive and nutritional system. Based on the meta-analytic results, indicating hot nodes of useful plants at the phylogenetic level, specific ethnopharmacological research may be suggested, including a phytochemical approach of particularly interesting taxa.

Wild food plants and minor crops in the Ripollès district (Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula): potentialities for developing a local production, consumption and exchange program.

BACKGROUND: Wild food plants (WFP) have always been consumed by humans, first as the main basis of their food and, since the origins of agriculture, as ingredients of normal diets or as an alternative during situations of scarcity. In contemporary industrialized societies their use is for the most part being abandoned, but they may still play an important role. With the purpose of advancing in the ethnobotanical knowledge of one region of the Catalan Pyrenees, the present study reports the findings of a research project conducted in the Ripollès district (Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula), concerning ethnobotanical knowledge and use of wild and semi-wild vascular plants as foods, along with minor crops. METHODS: From August 2004 to July 2014, we performed 104 interviews (93 of which yielded data on food plants) with 163 informants, using the method of semi-structured ethnobotanical interview. We identified the plants quoted and kept herbarium vouchers. RESULTS: We detected 967 use reports for 80 wild or naturalized taxa, which are or have been consumed in the Ripollès district, the most cited being Taraxacum dissectum, Cynara cardunculus and Origanum vulgare. Certain frequently reported species such as Molopospermum peloponnesiacum and Taraxacum dissectum have only been rarely cited previously or indicated as food plant in very restricted geographical areas. Most cited families included Asteraceae and Lamiaceae, followed by Rosaceae and Apiaceae. Preferred consumed plant parts included leaves, followed by aerial parts, along with fruits and infructescences, while most wild food plants are eaten raw or used as condiments. Demographic factors such as age and locality of informants seem to be more relevant to wild food plant knowledge than gender. Middle-aged people and inhabitants from the Higher Freser River Valley seem to have a greater knowledge of WFP, both in relation to the number of species elicited, as well as the diversity of uses and preparations. To a lesser degree, women seem to have a slightly higher WFP knowledge than men. The consumption of these resources is still fairly alive amongst the populace, yet changes affecting younger generations-in most cases abandonment-have been reported by various participants. CONCLUSION: The information provided by this kind of research permits the detection of those traditional species that could constitute the basis for the future development and management of wild edible plant resources along with minor crops. It also helps to determine the factors affecting their use, as well as the distinct target groups that such programmes could be addressed to.

Foodways in transition: food plants, diet and local perceptions of change in a Costa Rican Ngäbe community.

BACKGROUND: Indigenous populations are undergoing rapid ethnobiological, nutritional and socioeconomic transitions while being increasingly integrated into modernizing societies. To better understand the dynamics of these transitions, this article aims to characterize the cultural domain of food plants and analyze its relation with current day diets, and the local perceptions of changes given amongst the Ngäbe people of Southern Conte-Burica, Costa Rica, as production of food plants by its residents is hypothesized to be drastically in recession with an decreased local production in the area and new conservation and development paradigms being implemented. METHODS: Extensive freelisting, interviews and workshops were used to collect the data from 72 participants on their knowledge of food plants, their current dietary practices and their perceptions of change in local foodways, while cultural domain analysis, descriptive statistical analyses and development of fundamental explanatory themes were employed to analyze the data. RESULTS: Results show a food plants domain composed of 140 species, of which 85 % grow in the area, with a medium level of cultural consensus, and some age-based variation. Although many plants still grow in the area, in many key species a decrease on local production-even abandonment-was found, with much reduced cultivation areas. Yet, the domain appears to be largely theoretical, with little evidence of use; and the diet today is predominantly dependent on foods bought from the store (more than 50 % of basic ingredients), many of which were not salient or not even recognized as 'food plants' in freelists exercises. While changes in the importance of food plants were largely deemed a result of changes in cultural preferences for store bought processed food stuffs and changing values associated with farming and being food self-sufficient, Ngäbe were also aware of how changing household livelihood activities, and the subsequent loss of knowledge and use of food plants, were in fact being driven by changes in social and political policies, despite increases in forest cover and biodiversity. CONCLUSIONS: Ngäbe foodways are changing in different and somewhat disconnected ways: knowledge of food plants is varied, reflecting most relevant changes in dietary practices such as lower cultivation areas and greater dependence on food from stores by all families. We attribute dietary shifts to socioeconomic and political changes in recent decades, in particular to a reduction of local production of food, new economic structures and agents related to the State and globalization.

Plants with topical uses in the Ripollès district (Pyrenees, Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula): ethnobotanical survey and pharmacological validation in the literature.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The skin is the main structure that protects the human body from environmental factors and has, in addition, a relevant relationship to people׳s appearance and beauty. Official medicine and cosmetics have shown interest on elaborating products to protect the dermal system, yet the role of folk medicine is highly unknown in this field. Taking this into account, we performed an ethnobotanical study in a Catalan district of the eastern Pyrenees (northeast Iberian Peninsula), with the purpose of assessing popular plant knowledge and use. In this paper, we present exclusively the results on topically-used plants. Additionally, we have performed a thorough literature search in order to validate the uses of plants recorded in well-established pharmacological works. METHODOLOGY: A number of 163 informants (57.7% women and 42.3% men, born between 1915 and 1988, with an average age of 71.6 years) were interviewed by means of 104 semi-structured interviews. Voucher specimens were collected, prepared and deposited in the BCN herbarium. RESULTS: We collected information on the popular uses implying topical application of 115 plant taxa (three determined at generic level and 112 at specific level), belonging to 92 genera and 51 families. Taxa with use reports higher than 5% included Arnica montana subsp. montana, Hypericum perforatum, Thymus vulgaris, Lilium candidum and Tussilago farfara. The degree of reliability of the results is very high, as indicated by a big number of report uses (1676) and a very high informant consensus factor (0.93 of a maximum of 1). Topical uses of 21 plant taxa with more than 1% of use reports have been validated consulting pharmacological literature. CONCLUSIONS: Data indicate a high degree of plant knowledge in the studied region regarding dermal conditions, cosmetics and additional affections (such as snake bite). The present study constitutes a good basis for further phytochemical and pharmacological research, which could be of interest in the design of new drugs. Furthermore, the evidence of these folk uses could be the key information in simplified procedures established by the European Union for the registration of herbal medicinal products based on traditionally used plants, reinforcing the already recognized role of ethnobotany in the mentioned applied research and development field.