Department of Pharmacognosy, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2012 Feb 15;139(3):838-57. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2011.12.029. Epub 2011 Dec 27.
Porvenir is a semi-isolated Indian community in the Bajo Paraguá Indian Reservation in Bolivian Amazon, one of the two communities of people from the Guarasug'we indigenous nation now close to extinction. The aim of our study was the collection of data on the traditional medicine utilized in the community, and to identify new subjects for further investigation by comparison of the folk-medicinal use with the available scientific literature data.
Field work was conducted for 5 months, which included participant observation, semi-structured interviews with 16 individuals, and the collection of voucher specimens for botanical identification. The knowledge of the inhabitants relating to medicinal plants was analysed by means of the modified method of Gentry and Phillips (1993a,b), which assesses the frequency and the variety of use of plants. Scientific data were gathered on selected species, and the correlations of the traditional uses of the herbs with scientific evidence were assessed.
The lifestyle and beliefs in Porvenir, botanical data on the plants used, the frequency and variety of medicinal use, diseases that occur and their possible treatment, and methods of plant application are discussed in detail. 145 plant species were registered with 451 recorded uses. The majority of the plants were utilized to treat gastrointestinal complaints (60 species), followed by diseases of the central nervous system, pain and fever (37 species), diseases of the genitourinary tract (35 species), dermatological disorders (34 species) and diseases of the respiratory system (32 species). One fifth of the species are also applied in traditional medicine in other areas of Bolivia or in other countries. The majority of the 145 species used in the community have not been extensively investigated from phytochemical and pharmacological aspects. There are no data in the scientific literature on one fifth of the species.
The medicine applied in Porvenir and the contemporary knowledge of the people interviewed concerning plants reflect the local traditions and their changes very well, clearly demonstrating the influence exerted by conventional medicine, and how the ancestral knowledge is progressively being forgotten. The present ethnopharmacological survey indicates that 24 species that are frequently and consistently used in the community of Porvenir are perspective for further research, as their chemistry and pharmacology have not been published to date.
Porvenir 是玻利维亚亚马逊地区 Bajo Paraguá 印第安保留地的一个半隔离的印第安社区，是现在濒临灭绝的瓜拉苏格韦土著民族的两个社区之一。我们的研究目的是收集该社区使用的传统医学数据，并通过将民间医学用途与现有科学文献数据进行比较，确定进一步研究的新课题。
进行了为期 5 个月的实地工作，包括参与观察、对 16 个人进行半结构化访谈以及收集植物标本进行植物学鉴定。通过 Gentry 和 Phillips（1993a，b）的改良方法分析居民对药用植物的知识，该方法评估植物的使用频率和多样性。对选定的物种收集了科学数据，并评估了草药的传统用途与科学证据的相关性。
详细讨论了 Porvenir 的生活方式和信仰、所使用植物的植物学数据、药用使用的频率和多样性、发生的疾病及其可能的治疗方法以及植物应用方法。记录了 145 种植物，记录了 451 种用途。大多数植物用于治疗胃肠道疾病（60 种），其次是中枢神经系统疾病、疼痛和发热（37 种）、泌尿生殖系统疾病（35 种）、皮肤病（34 种）和呼吸系统疾病（32 种）。五分之一的物种也在玻利维亚其他地区或其他国家的传统医学中使用。在社区中使用的 145 种物种中，大多数在植物化学和药理学方面没有得到广泛研究。科学文献中没有关于五分之一物种的资料。
Porvenir 应用的药物以及接受采访的人们对植物的当代知识很好地反映了当地的传统及其变化，清楚地表明了传统医学的影响，以及祖传知识如何逐渐被遗忘。目前的民族药理学调查表明，在 Porvenir 社区中经常且一致使用的 24 种物种具有进一步研究的前景，因为它们的化学和药理学尚未发表。
