Fataluku medicinal ethnobotany and the East Timorese military resistance.

BACKGROUND: An ethnobotanical study of medicinal and poisonous plants used by the East Timor resistance was undertaken in the Lautem District of East Timor to study medicinal plant use in the region. Interviews were conducted with a single key consultant from the resistance army who belonged to the Fataluku culture. This study is of importance as a historical document and because no previous medicinal ethnobotanical studies on this region exist. METHODS: A rapid ethnobotanical survey of medicinal and poisonous plants was conducted through the proposed Conis Santana National Park in the Lautem district of East Timor. Medicinal and poisonous plants were identified by a Consultant and data was collected by the authors using classical descriptive ethnobotanical techniques (i.e. no quantitative measures) through an unstructured open ended interview. RESULTS: During the survey 40 medicinal and poisonous plants were identified by the Consultant and collected by the authors. Defining characteristics of the Consultant's knowledge include a high frequency use of trees, heavily forested habitats, leaves, decoctions and drinks for a range of conditions relevant to a resistance army. CONCLUSION: Despite limitations of the study, important contributions of this study include preservation of a part of the cultural history of the resistance movement and traditional botanical knowledge of the Fataluku. Furthermore, initial findings may indicate that traditional botanical knowledge is unique amongst different East Timorese cultures in terms of plant selection.

Edible oil crops and their integration with the major cereals in North Shewa and South Welo, Central Highlands of Ethiopia: an ethnobotanical perspective.

A total of 1050 sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and tef (Eragrostis tef) fields distributed in six study sites within north Shewa and south Welo (Central Highlands of Ethiopia) were systematically surveyed to examine the status of integration of edible oil crops into the cereal-based farming system. Farmers' criteria for, and perception on, integration between edible oil crops and the major cereals at field level as well as integration between the cereal grains and the oilseeds in food making at home were studied and analyzed based on formal semi-structured interview and informal discussion with local expert farmers as key informants. Farmers' traditional space optimization technique has been instrumental in rightly fitting edible oil crops (as intercrops and border crops) into the cereal-based system. Six species of edible oil crops are integrated (70.3%) in various proportions in fields of sorghum and tef. At least one oil crop was significantly intercropped and/or border cropped in sorghum fields. Noog (Guizotia abyssinica) and sesame (Sesamum indicum) were the most important edible oil crops of the study area having strong integration with sorghum both at field and home level. On average, noog was more frequently intercropped with sorghum (8.3%) than with tef (4.5%), while it was more frequently border cropped with tef (32.4%) than with sorghum (19%). Sorghum was more frequently inter/border cropped with sesame (39/2%) than with tef (10.1/0.5%). The stronger the integration of a given oilseed with sorghum-based foods, the higher the companionship between sorghum fields and the oil crop in the landscape. This cultural practice by farmers has positive contributions to on-farm conservation of oil crops along with tef and specific sorghum landraces. The central theme of this paper therefore converges on the issue of on-farm in-situ agrobiodiversity conservation that was shaped by successive ancestral generations and passed on to the present.