The influence of exotic and native plants on illnesses with physical and spiritual causes in the semiarid region of Piauí, Northeast of Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Local medical systems (LMS) include native and exotic plants used for the treatment of diseases of physical and spiritual nature. The incorporation of exotic plants into these systems has been the subject of many studies. In this context, an analysis was conducted on the influence of the origin of plants on diseases of physical and spiritual nature in order to evaluate the therapeutic versatility of native and exotic species in these therapeutic targets, to investigate whether exotic plants mainly fill gaps not met by native plants (diversification hypothesis), and identify which species are prioritized in the redundant targets in these two therapeutic groups in the rural community of Morrinhos, Monsenhor Hipólito, Piauí. METHODS: Data collection took place in 2 stages. First, free lists and semi-structured interviews with local residents (n = 134) were conducted to survey plants used for therapeutic purposes and the associated illnesses. Then, another phase of interviews was carried out to evaluate the prioritization between native and exotic plants in redundant therapeutic targets. To test the diversification hypothesis (DH) in each group of illnesses, data were analyzed using generalized linear models (Poisson and Binomial GLMs); versatility was measured by the number of therapeutic indications and compared between resources using the Mann-Whitney test, and prioritization in each group was verified by comparing the proportions of native and exotic plants with the χ2 test. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-two species of plants were surveyed, being 71 exotic and 61 native, with indications for physical and spiritual illnesses. The results revealed that the diversification hypothesis did not explain the inclusion of exotic plants in the local medical system to treat physical or spiritual illnesses and that the therapeutic versatility of exotic and native resources in the two groups was also similar (p > 0.05). However, exotic plants were prioritized in illnesses with physical causes and native plants in illnesses with spiritual causes. CONCLUSIONS: The local medical system presents similar and distinct patterns in the therapeutic targets, depending on the perspective evaluated. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the patterns of use of medicinal plants in different sociocultural contexts in order to broaden the debate about the role of plant origin in the selection of treatments for illnesses with different causes.

Advancing ethnobiology for the ecological transition and a more inclusive and just world: a comprehensive framework for the next 20 years.

This opinion piece, written by ethnobiologists from different parts of the world, emphasizes the importance of ethnobiology research in advancing contemporary biology, natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, sustainable development, and, especially, contributing to the ecological transition and more just and inclusive world. To achieve these goals, it is essential to develop research and collaborate with social groups that live in close relationship with nature in research activities, such as Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC), as well as Afro-descendants and other Marginalized, Minority or Minoritized Communities (AMMC). Ethnobiology can identify and provide locally appropriate solutions to local problems, enabling sustainable resource management at the landscape level. The text explores important aspects that need to be considered to guide the future of ethnobiology in the next 20 years, aiming to integrate and amplify previous discussions held in the discipline and identify points that demand ongoing attention. This paper highlights reflections from diverse researchers, emphasizing how ethnobiology can embrace different perspectives and employ rigorous analysis of complex phenomena toward effective policies and practices. This approach holds the potential to address the challenges the planet is currently facing in the coming decades.

Interactions between local medical systems and the biomedical system: a conceptual and methodological review in light of hybridization subprocesses.

Local medical systems (LMSs) are complex and dynamic, encompassing local perceptions of diseases, prevention and treatment strategies, and evaluations of therapeutic responses. These systems are not isolated and interact with other medical systems, such as the biomedical system. The interaction between these systems creates a "contact zone", which some authors refer to as intermedicality, involving both competitive and complementary interactions. However, there is limited discussion in the literature regarding the complexity of these interactions. Some studies seek to understand this interaction through the lens of hybridization, a concept introduced to ethnobiology by Ana Ladio and Ulysses Albuquerque. The authors conceptualize hybridization as "discrete structures and practices coming together to form a new practice not necessarily implying homogenization." They discuss hybridization in the context of medicinal plants used in urban settings and propose seven hybridization subprocesses to gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. In this study, we update these hybridization subprocesses, expanding the concepts to comprehend the specific interaction of resources from LMS and biomedical systems known and used by different human groups. In this context, we propose a new subprocess and have made adjustments to the existing subprocesses to encompass the diversity of possible interactions between medicinal plants and pharmaceuticals, providing evidence from the literature demonstrating interactions that can be classified within the proposed subprocesses. Furthermore, we discuss, from a theoretical standpoint, how these subprocesses may have implications for the resilience of medical systems. Moreover, we propose a flowchart that can be utilized to identify these hybridization subprocesses in intermedicality contexts in future studies. These classifications are crucial because they enable us to comprehend the complexity of interactions between medicinal plants and pharmaceuticals, as well as the impacts that these different interactions can have on the resilience of LMSs.

Exploring Large Digital Bodies for the Study of Human Behavior.

Internet access has become a fundamental component of contemporary society, with major impacts in many areas that offer opportunities for new research insights. The search and deposition of information in digital media form large sets of data known as digital corpora, which can be used to generate structured data, representing repositories of knowledge and evidence of human culture. This information offers opportunities for scientific investigations that contribute to the understanding of human behavior on a large scale, reaching human populations/individuals that would normally be difficult to access. These tools can help access social and cultural varieties worldwide. In this article, we briefly review the potential of these corpora in the study of human behavior. Therefore, we propose Culturomics of Human Behavior as an approach to understand, explain, and predict human behavior using digital corpora.

Does prestige bias influence the recall and transmission of COVID-19-related information? Protocol registration for an experimental study conducted online.

In epidemic and pandemic contexts, such as that of COVID-19, epidemiological changes are continuous, and many people do not have access to accurate, up-to-date information. In this context, social learning can be an advantageous survival strategy. We investigate whether people remember and communicate information attributed to someone prestigious more often than that attributed to family members, politicians, and people with experience in public health. The experimental phase will include a recall stage and an information transmission stage, which will be based on a fictitious text containing an opinion about a drug treatment for COVID-19. There will be four versions of the text, and each participant will be assigned one of these versions for the investigation. The participants will be instructed to read the fictional story and then complete a distraction exercise. Subsequently, a recall test will be performed, where they will be asked to recount the story as accurately as possible. The second stage of the experiment is aimed at testing the transmission of information where we will conduct a linear chain transmission experiment, where eight chains of four participants will be used for each story. They will be asked to write down their recollection of the material. This text will undergo spelling error correction and then be sent to the next participant in the chain through the platform. At the end of the experiment, there will be a self-reporting questionnaire for the participants; this allows for triangulation of the data.

Short-term temporal analysis and children's knowledge of the composition of important medicinal plants: the structural core hypothesis.

BACKGROUND: Measures of the importance of medicinal plants have long been used in ethnobotany and ethnobiology to understand the influence of social-ecological system factors in the formation of individuals' differential knowledge and use. However, there is still a gap in empirical studies that seek to understand the temporal aspects of this process. METHODS: To overcome this issue, we used the concept of the structural core of medicinal plants, a theoretical-evolutionary model, which argues that the importance of medicinal plant resources is related to the increase in individual and population fitness. It represents the set of the most effective and available resources that would treat the most common diseases in an environment. This composition of knowledge would be conservative over space and time. To test these questions, we hypothesized that the composition of the structural core remains constant during temporal changes in a social-ecological context, and that the composition of the infantile structural core (new generation) is similar to that of the adults (older generation). For 2 years, we tracked the structure of important medicinal plants among the same 49 residents of a community located in Vale do Catimbau in Pernambuco, Brazil. We also compared the importance of the medicinal plants among two different generations, children/adolescents and adults, in the same space/time context. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Our results refuted both hypotheses. Regarding the composition of important medicinal plants through temporal variations and for children's learning, our results were not predicted by the model. This suggests that the structural core should not be regarded as a conservative phenomenon, but rather a congenital, dynamic, and plastic occurrence that has adapted to configure itself as a short-term population response to the treatment of local diseases.

Utilitarian redundancy in local medical systems - theoretical and methodological contributions.

The utilitarian redundancy model (URM) is one of the recent contributions to ethnobiology. We argue that URM can be applied to access use-pressure on plant species, the resilience of socioecological systems (e.g., local medical systems), cultural keystone species, and the role of exotic species in social-ecological systems. Based on previous URM studies, we also emphasize the need to differ practical (considering plants and uses that are currently employed) and theoretical (considering both currently employed and potentially employed plants and uses) redundancy. Based on the main applications of the URM, we propose a new index to access redundancy of a therapeutic indication: the Uredit, so that Uredit = NSp + CR, were Uredit is the Utilitarian Redundancy Index for the therapeutic indication; NSp is the total number of species mentioned for the indication, and CR is the species' contribution to redundancy (in terms of knowledge sharing). The maximum value that the Uredit could reach is twice the number of species employed for the therapeutic indication. We believe that this theoretical and methodological improvement in the model can improve comparisons of redundancy in different social-ecological systems. We also highlight some limitations of the URM (and our Uredit), and we believe that conscious reasons behind people's decisions should be incorporated into future studies on the subject.

Adaptive memory and evolution of the human naturalistic mind: Insights from the use of medicinal plants.

Throughout evolutionary history, humans have been exposed to a wide variety of diseases, some of which have serious and even lethal consequences. Memorizing medicinal plants for the treatment of serious diseases likely maximized the chances of survival and reproduction and was instrumental in the evolutionary success of our species. In the present study, we used the idea of adaptive memory to understand whether human memory evolved to recall information about medicinal plants for the treatment of serious diseases. We considered plant-disease pairs of words as units of information available in a medical system based on the use of medicinal plants. The pairs included in the categories of chronic infectious diseases and transmissible infectious diseases were considered to be of higher adaptive value, whereas those included in the category of common conditions were considered to be of lower adaptive value. Pairs grouped into the category of emerging and reemerging diseases were employed to investigate conformity bias; pairs belonging to the category esthetic uses were considered to be of little adaptive relevance and utilized as an experimental control. Our results revealed that plant-disease pairs associated with the category of common conditions, considered by us to be of lower severity and less adaptive relevance for humans, were better remembered and retained in the participants' memory. We believe that prior experience with common conditions and the frequency of these conditions in the population may have intensified the ability to remember the plant-disease pairs associated with this group of diseases.

Religiosity/Spirituality Matters on Plant-Based Local Medical System.

Religiosity/spirituality can affect health and quality of life in myriad ways. Religion has been present since the first moments of our evolutionary history, whether it is understood as a byproduct or as an adaptation of our cognitive evolution. We investigated how religion influences medicinal plant-based local medical systems (LMSs) and focuses on how individual variation in the degree of religiosity/spirituality affects the structure of LMSs. The knowledge of people about their medical systems was obtained through the free-listing technique, and level of religiosity/spirituality was calculated using the Brazilian version of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality. We employed a Generalized Linear Model to obtain the best model. Religiosity/spirituality is predictive of structural and functional aspects of medicinal plant-based LMSs. Our model encourages a discussion of the role of religion in the health of an individual as well as in the structure of an individual's support system. Religiosity/spirituality (and the dimensions of Commitment and Religious and Spiritual History, in particular) act to protect structural and functional elements of LMSs. By providing protection, the LMS benefits from greater resilience, at both the individual and population levels. We suggest that the socialization process resulting from the religious phenomenon has contributed to the complexity and maintenance of LMSs by means of the interaction of individuals as they engage in their religious observances, thus facilitating cultural transmission.

Evolutionary ethnobiology and cultural evolution: opportunities for research and dialog.

The interest in theoretical frameworks that improve our understanding of social-ecological systems is growing within the field of ethnobiology. Several evolutionary questions may underlie the relationships between people and the natural resources that are investigated in this field. A new branch of research, known as evolutionary ethnobiology (EE), focuses on these questions and has recently been formally conceptualized. The field of cultural evolution (CE) has significantly contributed to the development of this new field, and it has introduced the Darwinian concepts of variation, competition, and heredity to studies that focus on the dynamics of local knowledge. In this article, we introduce CE as an important theoretical framework for evolutionary ethnobiological research. We present the basic concepts and assumptions of CE, along with the adjustments that are necessary for its application in EE. We discuss different ethnobiological studies in the context of this new framework and the new opportunities for research that exist in this area. We also propose a dialog that includes our findings in the context of cultural evolution.

Why do people use exotic plants in their local medical systems? A systematic review based on Brazilian local communities.

Efforts have been made to understand the processes that lead to the introduction of exotic species into local pharmacopoeias. Among those efforts, the diversification hypothesis predicts that exotic plants are introduced in local medical systems to amplify the repertoire of knowledge related to the treatment of diseases, filling blanks that were not occupied by native species. Based on such hypothesis, this study aimed to contribute to this discussion using the context of local Brazilian populations. We performed a systematic review of Brazilian studies up to 2011 involving medicinal plants, excluding those studies that presented a high risk of bias (because of sampling or plant identification problems). An analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) was conducted in different scales to test for differences in the repertoire of therapeutic indications treated using native and exotic species. We have found that although there is some overlap between native and exotic plants regarding their therapeutic indications and the body systems (BSs) that they treat, there are clear gaps present, that is, there are therapeutic indications and BSs treated that are exclusive to exotic species. This scenario enables the postulation of two alternative unfoldings of the diversification hypothesis, namely, (1) exotic species are initially introduced to fill gaps and undergo subsequent expansion of their use for medical purposes already addressed using native species and (2) exotic species are initially introduced to address problems already addressed using native species to diversify the repertoire of medicinal plants and to increase the resilience of medical systems. The reasons why exotic species may have a competitive advantage over the native ones, the implications of the introduction of exotic species for the resilience of medical systems, and the contexts in which autochthonous plants can gain strength to remain in pharmacopoeias are also discussed.

The use of different indicators for interpreting the local knowledge loss on medical plants

ABSTRACT The increasing loss of local ecological knowledge may have negative impacts on the resilience of socio-ecological systems and may also negatively impact bioprospecting efforts, since local ecological knowledge is an important source of information for searching new drugs. Recent studies try to evaluate whether communities are experiencing loss of local ecological knowledge. However, some of them make conclusions which are erroneously based on specific analyses of a single indicator. We propose an integrative analysis of three indicators, namely: number of plants cited by young people and elders, therapeutic choices and people's connectance in terms of medicinal plant learning. The study was carried out in the community of Sucruiuzinho (Bahia, Brazil). We conducted semistructured interviews and a therapeutic recall with 24 local dwellers. We did not find evidence of local ecological knowledge loss in the studied community. Although younger people know fewer plants, they are well connected in terms of knowledge transmission. Moreover, in illness events, young people and adults have similar proportions of choice for plants when compared to allopathy. Concomitant use of the three indicators leads to a more realistic scenario of local ecological knowledge loss than the use of only one of them.

The role of local disease perception in the selection of medicinal plants: A study of the structure of local medical systems.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: In this study, we investigated the role of local perceptions of diseases in the selection of medicinal plants. For this purpose, we consulted local experts from two communities located in the semiarid region of northeastern Brazil. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After selecting the experts, we used semi-structured interviews to assess the symptoms of each disease studied, the perception of variations in each of these diseases, and the plants used for their treatment. We then conducted a participatory workshop in which the experts engaged in free grouping of the diseases mentioned in the first step. RESULTS: We observed that the therapeutic targets (diseases) showed a lower similarity of medicinal plants than the perceived variants of these targets. We found that plant selection was associated with the perception of symptoms: the greater the similarity between two diseases based on the perceived symptoms, the greater the similarity between these diseases based on the medicinal plants. Furthermore, we observed a greater similarity between plants used to treat diseases perceived as related to each other. CONCLUSION: Local perceptions of the association between diseases and between diseases and symptoms can influence plant selection such that the similarity of the medicinal plants chosen is higher for the diseases perceived as related and as having common symptoms. These results indicate the presence of mechanisms by which local perceptions of diseases affect the structures of local medical systems.

Does plant species richness guarantee the resilience of local medical systems? A perspective from utilitarian redundancy.

Resilience is related to the ability of a system to adjust to disturbances. The Utilitarian Redundancy Model has emerged as a tool for investigating the resilience of local medical systems. The model determines the use of species richness for the same therapeutic function as a facilitator of the maintenance of these systems. However, predictions generated from this model have not yet been tested, and a lack of variables exists for deeper analyses of resilience. This study aims to address gaps in the Utilitarian Redundancy Model and to investigate the resilience of two medical systems in the Brazilian semi-arid zone. As a local illness is not always perceived in the same way that biomedicine recognizes, the term "therapeutic targets" is used for perceived illnesses. Semi-structured interviews with local experts were conducted using the free-listing technique to collect data on known medicinal plants, usage preferences, use of redundant species, characteristics of therapeutic targets, and the perceived severity for each target. Additionally, participatory workshops were conducted to determine the frequency of targets. The medical systems showed high species richness but low levels of species redundancy. However, if redundancy was present, it was the primary factor responsible for the maintenance of system functions. Species richness was positively associated with therapeutic target frequencies and negatively related to target severity. Moreover, information about redundant species seems to be largely idiosyncratic; this finding raises questions about the importance of redundancy for resilience. We stress the Utilitarian Redundancy Model as an interesting tool to be used in studies of resilience, but we emphasize that it must consider the distribution of redundancy in terms of the treatment of important illnesses and the sharing of information. This study has identified aspects of the higher and lower vulnerabilities of medical systems, adding variables that should be considered along with richness and redundancy.

Ethnopharmacological study of Stryphnodendron rotundifolium in two communities in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil

This work describes the local knowledge of the medicinal use of Stryphnodendron rotundifolium Mart., Fabaceae, according to informants in two areas of the Araripe bioregion, in the Northeast Region of Brazil. We used interviews to investigate the ethnomedicinal use of the local species to determine the mode of use, frequency of administration, duration of treatment and restrictions of use. In traditional medicine, the use of S. rotundifolium is associated with the treatment of inflammatory and infectious diseases. The part of the plant most used was the stem bark (86.11%), the predominant mode of preparation was immersion in water (52.83%), and oral administration was the most cited (48.43%). For inflammatory and infectious diseases, the treatment lasted 3-10 days and the frequency of administration was 2-3 times/day. For gastroprotective effects, treatment lasted up to 30 days, and the herb was administered 1-3 times/day. For pain complaints, the therapy varied from 2-3 days to continuous administration.The informants (46.87%) did not mention restrictions of use, except for pregnant women, with a rate of 25%. A comparison of these results with the ethnopharmacological information from other studies showed that some of the traditional indications are scientifically supported by the literature or clinical studies. Nevertheless, the results showed that pharmacologists have not fully investigated all the possible bioactivities that healers credit to this plant. .

Are ethnopharmacological surveys useful for the discovery and development of drugs from medicinal plants?

Ethnopharmacological and ethnobotanical approaches are described in the literature as efficient to identify plants of interest for phytochemical and pharmacological studies. In the present work, we reflect on the quality of the data collected in ethno-directed studies. In accordance to the problems identified in published studies, and their theoretical and methodological underpinnings, we believe that these studies are poorly suited to contribute to the advancement of research aimed at the development of novel drugs.

Plant stem bark extractivism in the northeast semiarid region of Brazil: a new aport to utilitarian redundancy model.

We use the model of utilitarian redundancy as a basis for research. This model provides predictions that have not been tested by other research. In this sense, we sought to investigate the stem bark extraction between preferred and less-preferred species by a rural community in Caatinga environment. In addition, we sought to explain local preferences to observe if preferred plants have a higher content of tannins than less-preferred species. For this, we selected seven preferred species and seven less-preferred species from information obtained from semistructured interviews applied to 49 informants. Three areas of vegetation around the community were also selected, in which individuals were tagged, and were measured the diameter at ground level (DGL) diameter at breast height (DBH), and measurements of available and extracted bark areas. Samples of bark of the species were also collected for the evaluation of tannin content, obtained by the method of radial diffusion. From the results, the preferred species showed a greater area of bark removed. However, the tannin content showed no significant differences between preferred and less-preferred plants. These results show there is a relationship between preference and use, but this preference is not related to the total tannins content.

Are hallucinogenic plants efficacious in curing diseases?: [review] / Son eficaces las sustancias alucinógenas en la curación de enfermedades?: [revisión]

The ethnobotanical, anthropological and ethnopharmacological literature has shown a strong relationship between hallucinogenic plants and medical efficacy. Despite evidence from previous studies, many issues have not been discussed clearly enough to enable acceptance of this relationship. This study uses a literature survey to track how different authors have dealt with the issue and what future research opportunities may emerge.

La literatura etnobotánica, antropológica y etnofarmacológica ha señalado una fuerte relación entre las plantas alucinógenas y su efectividad como medicamento. A pesar de todas las pruebas e informes, hay muchas cuestiones que no están claramente discutidas para permitir la aceptación de esta idea. En este trabajo, a partir de una investigación bibliográfica, nos proponemos investigar cómo diferentes autores se han ocupado de la cuestión y cuáles son las posibilidades de investigación que puedan emerger de esto.