An ethnopharmacological survey of natural remedies used by the Chinese community in Mauritius.

OBJECTIVE

To collect, preserve and document primary ethnopharmacological information on common natural remedies (NRs) used by the Chinese community to treat and/or manage common diseases in Mauritius, a tropical multicultural island in the Indian Ocean.

METHODS

Face-to-face interviews were carried out with 52 key Chinese informants using a semi-structured questionnaire. Quantitative ethnobotanical indices, namely, the informant consensus factor (FIC), the use value, the fidelity level, the index of agreement on remedies and the relative importance were calculated.

RESULTS

Plants (61) and animal species (17), belonging to 43 and 9 families respectively, constituted the exploited flora and fauna by the Chinese community. Based on the FIC the main categories of plants used were employed against injury and poisons due to external causes (FIC=0.97), diseases of the respiratory system (FIC=0.96), diseases of the eye and adnexa (FIC=0.95), undefined pains or illness (FIC=0.95), diseases during the postpartum period, diseases of the digestive system and diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue (FIC=0.94 each). For zootherapy, diseases of the circulatory system, diseases of the eye and adnexa, diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue and endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases had total consensus (FIC=1.00).

CONCLUSIONS

It was found that the Chinese community of Mauritius still relies, to a great extent, on NRs which need to be preserved and used sustainably. Nonetheless, further research is needed to probe the possible active constituents that could be the basis of an evidence-based investigation to discover new drugs.