García-Hernández Karina Yaredi, Vibrans Heike, Rivas-Guevara María, Aguilar-Contreras Abigail
Laboratorio de Etnobotánica, Postgrado en Botánica, Colegio de Postgraduados, 56230 Montecillo, Texcoco, Estado de México, Mexico.
Centro de Investigación en Etnobiología y Biodiversidad, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, 56230 Chapingo, Texcoco, Estado de México, Mexico.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2015 Apr 2;163:12-30. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2015.01.001. Epub 2015 Jan 8.
Understanding the reasoning behind the choice of medicinal plants is relevant for both pharmacological and ethnobotanical quantitative studies. In this study, we analyze how the traditional medical system influences the choice of medicinal plants in a Mexican indigenous population.
The study area was San Miguel Tulancingo, Oaxaca, Mexico, and the studied people the Rru ngigua (or Chocholtecs), an Otomangue group with only a few hundred speakers remaining. Through in-depth and repeated interviews of four traditional healers and ethnobotanical collections, we identified, described and classified the medicinal plants, the nosological units, the therapeutic procedures and the reasoning behind medicinal plant and treatment choice.
The hot-cold system, which considers illness to be a result of humoral imbalance, strongly influences treatment choice. "Hot" plants are used mainly to treat "cold" diseases, and vice versa. With some variation, plants are selected mainly for this hot-or-cold property, and the specific plant species is often not very relevant. In addition, many plants are associated with specific healing procedures, such as sweat baths. The procedures, in turn, may be used to treat various diseases.
The study shows that the relationship between medicinal plants and treated diseases is complex and indirect in most cases. It is strongly influenced by the hot-cold concept and by therapeutic procedures.
理解药用植物选择背后的原因对于药理学和民族植物学定量研究均具有重要意义。在本研究中，我们分析了传统医学体系如何影响墨西哥一个土著群体对药用植物的选择。
研究区域为墨西哥瓦哈卡州的圣米格尔图兰辛戈，研究对象是鲁恩吉瓜人（或乔乔尔特克人），他们是奥托曼格语族的一个群体，目前仅余几百人会说该语言。通过对四位传统治疗师进行深入且反复的访谈以及民族植物学采集，我们识别、描述并分类了药用植物、疾病分类单位、治疗程序以及药用植物和治疗选择背后的依据。
热 - 冷体系认为疾病是体液失衡的结果，这对治疗选择有强烈影响。“热”性植物主要用于治疗“冷”性疾病，反之亦然。虽存在一些差异，但植物主要是因其热或冷的属性被选择，具体植物种类往往并非十分关键。此外，许多植物与特定的治疗程序相关联，比如发汗浴。这些程序反过来可用于治疗多种疾病。
该研究表明，在大多数情况下，药用植物与所治疗疾病之间的关系复杂且间接。它受到热 - 冷概念和治疗程序的强烈影响。
