Herbal medicine in the Marquesas Islands

Girardi, Cynthia; Butaud, Jean‐François; Ollier, Corinne; Ingert, Nicolas; Weniger, Bernard; Raharivelomanana, Phila; Moretti, Christian

doi:10.1016/j.jep.2014.09.045

Cited by 36 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This study focused on cosmetic uses and a majority of cosmetic allegations were observed. Nevertheless, among these recipes, 6% referred to pharmacopoeia, confirming that there are no clear boundaries in Marquesan culture between concepts of body/aesthetic care and medicinal care, as has been shown by Girardi et al [16] studying Marquesan pharmacopoeia. Regarding posology, cosmetic recipes could be used every day unlike medicinal recipes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…All informants were selected and consulted for their rich knowledge of plants and traditional uses but also because they still continue to formulate cosmetic preparations for their friends, family or for tourists. We also focused on informants interviewed by Girardi et al [16] for the Marquesan pharmacopoeia and on the informants recommended by members of “ Académie marquisienne ” or Marquesan Academy, specialists in Marquesan language and culture.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The identification of each plant used for cosmetic treatments (quoted by its Marquesan name or showed to the interviewer) was facilitated by previous work done on Marquesan pharmacopoeia with numerous informants in common in both studies and with voucher specimens deposited at PAP herbarium in Tahiti [16], by botanical booklets aiming at linking Latin and Marquesan plant names [5, 6] and by the last author, botanist, who checked plant names and pictures reported by the interviewers. Several species of mints and frangipanis were clustered into unique taxa (ethnospecies), respectively Mentha spp.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept of an “ethnobotanical event” adapted from Tardio et al [17] by Girardi et al [16] for the study of Marquesan herbal medicine was implemented with the definition of allegation reports. A table gathering all data obtained from the investigations (informant, recipe, species, plant part, target, cosmetic use, allegation) was built to compile in different lines each allegation report so that each parameter could be analyzed independently.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the present survey reports the first field investigation of French Polynesian cosmetopoeia and focuses on traditional Marquesan plants used in cosmetics. It follows up an ethnobotanical investigation of Marquesan pharmacopoeia that was conducted previously by Girardi et al [16]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ethnobotanical survey of cosmetic plants used in Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia)

Jost¹,

Ansel²,

Lecellier³

et al. 2016

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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BackgroundCosmetic plants and their uses have often been neglected in ethnobotanical surveys which focus mainly on plants with medicinal or food uses. Thus, this survey was carried out to specifically investigate cosmetics in a small community and to establish a cosmetopoeia, based on the model of pharmacopoeia for medicinal plants. The geographic spread of the survey covered the Marquesas Islands, one of the five archipelagos of French Polynesia (Pacific Ocean). This archipelago was also recently investigated for its pharmacopoeia.MethodsThis survey is based on individual interviews of Marquesan informants on the islands of Tahiti (Society archipelago) and Nuku Hiva (Marquesas archipelago). The methodological approach was semi-directive with open-ended questions based on cosmetic criteria (application area, cosmetic use, plant). Before each interview, researchers and the informant signed a Prior Informed Consent (PIC). Quantitative analyses were performed using basic statistics and the indice of Fidelity Level (FL).ResultsTwenty-eight informants from five of the six inhabited Marquesan islands were interviewed and yielded more than 500 cosmetic recipes. Marquesan cosmetopoeia included 79 plant taxa, of which 5% are Marquesan endemics, 23% are indigenous, 28% are Polynesian introductions and 44% are modern introductions. Among the introduced species, half were cultivated whereas the other half were weedy species. Most of the plants were abundant and only eight species were considered rare, of which four were Marquesan endemics. Main cosmetic plants were identified through informant citations and fidelity levels, and included Calophyllum inophyllum, Cananga odorata, Citrus aurantiifolia, Cocos nucifera, Curcuma longa, Gardenia taitensis, Mentha spp., Ocimum basilicum, Rauvolfia nukuhivensis and Santalum insulare var. marchionense. The most referred application areas were skin, hair and private parts whereas the main cosmetic uses were perfume, hydration, medicinal care and healing.ConclusionsThrough this survey, Marquesan cosmetopoeia was investigated in detail and uncovered a majority of introduced and abundant plants, and a minority of endemic and rare plants which required proper management to avoid future shortage. The well known perfumed coconut oil or monoi appeared as the main Marquesan cosmetic preparation either for the skin and the hair. Several plants and preparations warrant scientific investigations for their originality.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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