Ferreira Júnior Washington Soares, da Silva Teresinha Gonçalves, Alencar Menezes Irwin Rose, Albuquerque Ulysses Paulino
Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Social-Ecological Systems (LEA), Department of Biology, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Av. Dom Manoel de Medeiros, s/n, Dois Irmãos, 52171-900 Recife, PE, Brazil.
Bioassays Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Research, Federal University of Pernambuco, Department of Antibiotics, Cidade Universitária, 52171-900 Recife, PE, Brazil.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2016 Apr 2;181:146-57. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2016.01.038. Epub 2016 Jan 27.
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.
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.
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.
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.
在本研究中，我们调查了当地对疾病的认知在药用植物选择中的作用。为此，我们咨询了位于巴西东北部半干旱地区的两个社区的当地专家。
在选定专家后，我们采用半结构化访谈来评估所研究的每种疾病的症状、对这些疾病中每一种变化的认知以及用于治疗的植物。然后，我们举办了一次参与式研讨会，专家们对第一步中提到的疾病进行自由分组。
我们观察到，治疗靶点（疾病）所对应的药用植物的相似性低于这些靶点的感知变体所对应的药用植物的相似性。我们发现植物选择与症状认知相关：基于感知症状，两种疾病之间的相似性越高，基于药用植物，这两种疾病之间的相似性就越高。此外，我们观察到用于治疗被认为彼此相关的疾病的植物之间的相似性更高。
当地对疾病之间以及疾病与症状之间关联的认知会影响植物选择，使得对于被认为相关且有共同症状的疾病，所选药用植物的相似性更高。这些结果表明存在一些机制，通过这些机制，当地对疾病的认知会影响当地医疗体系的结构。
