Comparative phylogenetic methods and the cultural evolution of medicinal plant use

Abstract

Human life depends on plant biodiversity and the ways in which plants are used are culturally determined. Whilst anthropologists have used phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) to gain an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the evolution of political, religious, social and material culture, plant use has been almost entirely neglected. Medicinal plants are of special interest because of their role in maintaining people's health across the world. PCMs in particular, and cultural evolutionary theory in general, provide a framework in which to study the diversity of medicinal plant applications cross-culturally, and to infer changes in plant use over time. These methods can be applied to single medicinal plants as well as the entire set of plants used by a culture for medicine, and they account for the non-independence of data when testing for floristic, cultural or other drivers of plant use. With cultural, biological and linguistic diversity under threat, gaining a deeper and broader understanding of the variation of medicinal plant use through time and space is pressing.

Medicinal plants used by women in Mecca: urban, Muslim and gendered knowledge

“…Food plants and spices represented half of the medicinal plants used by the Meccan women interviewed (49%), and many of these are plants cited in the Quran or the Hadith. Among Muslims, knowledge of a plant being mentioned in the Quran is often sufficient to validate its medicinal use [ 62 ]. Some medicinal plants cited in interviews are mentioned in the ‘the Medicine of the Prophet’: helba ( Trigonella foenum-graecum ), haba sawda ( Nigella sativa ), safarjil ( Cydonia oblonga ), rashad ( Lepidium sativum ), hana ( Lawsonia inermis ), zanajabil ( Zingiber officinale ), sana ( Senna alexandrina ), khull ( Ammi visnaga ) and sabr ( Aloe vera ), according to the list provided by Al-Yahya [ 63 ].…”

Comparative analysis of four medicinal floras: Phylogenetic methods to identify cross‐cultural patterns

“…People of different ethnolinguistic cultural groups (cultures hereafter) may prefer the same families (Moerman, 1979, 1991; Saslis‐Lagoudakis, Williamson, Savolainen, & Hawkins, 2011; Weckerle, Cabras, Castellanos, & Leonti, 2011), but not always (Ford & Gaoue, 2017). Shared patterns might be attributed to common selection criteria (Leonti, Ramirez, Sticher, & Heinrich, 2003), independent discovery of efficacy (Saslis‐Lagoudakis et al., 2012) or transmission of knowledge (Hawkins & Teixidor‐Toneu, 2017; Teixidor‐Toneu, Jordan, & Hawkins, 2018). Differences could reflect adaptations to different floristic environments, or different healthcare practices, health needs or belief systems.…”

“…Differences could reflect adaptations to different floristic environments, or different healthcare practices, health needs or belief systems. The explanations of common patterns, or of deviations from them, are relevant to healthcare and drug discovery (Teixidor‐Toneu et al., 2018).…”

“…Phylogenetic approaches offer insights distinct from the widely used taxon‐based cross‐cultural investigations. In one application, phylogenetic approaches are able to identify and quantify shared preferences for plants overall (Saslis‐Lagoudakis et al, 2014; Teixidor‐Toneu et al., 2018; Thompson et al, unpublished). In cross‐cultural studies such as these, metrics describe the relatedness of pairs of medicinal floras, rather than the component lineages, families or genera; the relatedness of the medicinal floras can be used as the comparative basis for identifying drivers of overall similarity in medicinal floras.…”

Drying Effects on Phenolics and Free Radical-Scavenging Capacity of Rhus pachyrrhachis and Rhus virens Used in Traditional Medicine

“…The use of plants for human health, a recurrent practice in many countries, has influenced the welfare of societies around the world [1]. The beneficial effects of medicinal plants are associated with the presence of secondary metabolites, including phenolic compounds, terpenoids, and alkaloids, among others [2].…”