Laboratori de Botànica, Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Joan XXIII s.n., 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2013 Jul 9;148(2):411-22. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2013.04.022. Epub 2013 Apr 21.
Respiratory tract diseases, including mild troubles, such as the common cold, and also life-threatening ones such as bacterial pneumonia and lung cancer, are very important in terms of mortality, incidence, prevalence and costs. Classical medicine has undoubtedly addressed these illnesses, but the body of knowledge generated by alternative approaches, among which folk medicine plays an important role, is not at all negligible.
In this context, we performed an ethnobotanical study in a Catalan region of the eastern Pyrenees, northeast Iberian Peninsula, in order to assess the popular knowledge on useful plants. We present here the data concerning pharmaceutical uses of plants devoted to respiratory illnesses.
A total of 160 informants (94 women and 66 men, born between 1915 and 1988) were interviewed during 102 semi-structured interviews. Voucher specimens were collected, and then processed and deposited in the herbarium BCN.
We collected information about 99 plant taxa (94 species - some of them with subspecies - of 85 genera belonging to 50 families) popularly employed to prevent or treat respiratory troubles. The degree of reliability of uses is high, as indicated for instance by an informant consensus factor of 0.83 and by high medicinal importance indexes for many taxa. In addition, we have recorded information on 14 animal and four mineral products also used against respiratory ailments, this constituting the first ethnopharmacological work in the Catalan linguistic area to report plant, animal and mineral remedies, and one of the very few in the Iberian Peninsula involving the study of ethnozoological medicines.
The data collected show a high degree of consistency and indicate a remarkable persistence of folk knowledge on plant uses. The anticatarrhal, antitussive and for sore throat are the most valuable uses. This research could be the starting point for further research aiming to obtain products that may generalise the alternative medical uses here raised at a local level. Phytochemical and pharmacological studies on some of the plants quoted here - of which we could provide material to potentially interested researchers - would be useful first steps in this process.
呼吸道疾病，包括轻度疾病，如普通感冒，以及危及生命的疾病，如细菌性肺炎和肺癌，在死亡率、发病率、患病率和成本方面都非常重要。经典医学无疑已经解决了这些疾病，但替代方法（其中民间医学起着重要作用）所产生的知识体系并非微不足道。
在这种情况下，我们在伊比利亚半岛东北部比利牛斯山脉东部的加泰罗尼亚地区进行了一项民族植物学研究，以评估有关有用植物的大众知识。我们在这里介绍了有关用于呼吸道疾病的植物药用用途的数据。
在 102 次半结构化访谈中，共采访了 160 名受访者（94 名女性和 66 名男性，出生于 1915 年至 1988 年之间）。收集了凭证标本，并进行了处理和存放在 BCN 标本馆中。
我们收集了 99 种植物类群（94 种植物-其中一些有亚种-属于 50 个科的 85 属）的信息，这些植物类群通常用于预防或治疗呼吸道疾病。使用的可靠性程度很高，例如，使用了 0.83 的信息共识因子和许多类群的高药用重要性指数。此外，我们还记录了 14 种动物和 4 种矿物质产品也用于治疗呼吸道疾病，这是加泰罗尼亚语区首次报告植物、动物和矿物质疗法的民族药理学工作，也是伊比利亚半岛上为数不多的涉及民族动物医学研究的工作之一。
收集的数据显示出高度的一致性，并表明民间对植物使用的知识具有显著的持久性。抗卡他、镇咳和咽喉痛是最有价值的用途。这项研究可以作为进一步研究的起点，旨在获得可以在地方一级推广这里提出的替代医疗用途的产品。对这里引用的一些植物进行植物化学和药理学研究-我们可以为有兴趣的研究人员提供材料-将是这一过程的有益的第一步。
