This plant treats that illness? The hot–cold system and therapeutic procedures mediate medicinal plant use in San Miguel Tulancingo, Oaxaca, Mexico

García-Hernández, Karina Yaredi; Vibrans, Heike; Rivas-Guevara, María; Aguilar-Contreras, Abigail

doi:10.1016/j.jep.2015.01.001

Cited by 42 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…According to Neves et al [58], raw materials such as roots and stems are not frequently applied to skin. In Zacatecas, baths and tinctures applied externally are mostly used to control herpes and skin disorders, and these methods of application were also mentioned in correspondence of García-Hernandez et al [59]. They reported that bathing (e.g., steam baths, foot baths, vaginal steam baths, sweat lodges) is commonly recommended by healers, who perceive baths to be more effective than oral infusions [59].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used in Zacatecas state, Mexico

et al. 2018

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Despite the fact that Mexico has vast biocultural biodiversity, there are numerous regions where the traditional medicinal use of plants has not yet been studied. We aimed to document, analyze quantitatively, and preserve medicinal plant knowledge among local people living in over 40 communities in the state of Zacatecas. Ethnobotanical information was collected by semistructured interviews with 132 informants. Data were analyzed using standard quantitative indices such as relative frequency of citation, family importance value, cultural importance index, and informant consensus factor. We recorded 168 medicinal plant taxa belonging to 151 genera and 69 botanical families and used to treat 99 health disorders. The most medicinally important plant families were Asteraceae (20 species), followed by Fabaceae and Lamiaceae (12 species) and Cactaceae (five species). The most culturally important species was Matricaria chamomilla L., mentioned 140 times, followed by Arnica montana L. (62 times) and Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt (48 times). The highest consensus for use was for diseases of the reproductive system. The type of disorder for which there was the highest number of references for use (389; 25% of all uses) and plant species (67) were diseases of the digestive and gastrointestinal system. The present study represents the first quantitative medical-ethnobotanical documentation and analysis of the traditional use of medicinal plants in Zacatecas state. Despite the semiarid climate, this region is botanically highly diverse, and its flora have versatile medicinal uses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used in Zacatecas state, Mexico

et al. 2018

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“…There is no necessary one-to-one correspondence between disorders recognized, discussed or treated in the humoral or biomedical system. A detailed account from San Miguel Tulancingo, Oaxaca, Mexico reveals the hot-cold system to be complex, often indirectly applied and not comprehensive in its coverage [ 87 ]. While some aspects of particular hunoral vulnerabilities or conditions may resonate partially with descriptions of ailments described in other explanatory schema, some disorders appear to fall completely outside the purview of the humoral approach.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, caries (dental decay) apparently does not feature in humoral understandings while other humorally-defined infirmities are unrecognized in biomedicine (eg., ‘fright’ disorder. ‘ susto’ , or ‘ mal de ojo’ ) [ 13 , 17 , 75 , 87 ]. In San Miguel Tulancingo, musculo-skeletal disorders are virtually always subject to humoral explanation and treatment whereas injury is almost never conceptualized in this fashion [ 87 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ethnographic study of salt use and humoral concepts in a Latino farm worker community in California’s Central Valley

Barker

Guerra

Gonzalez-Vargas

et al. 2017

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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BackgroundThis article reports on the use of domestic or table salt for its perceived health effects and healing properties in a Latino farmworker community. It explores how contemporary salt usage beliefs can be seen to have roots in long-standing humoral theories of medicine and health.MethodsThis qualitative investigation comprised 30 in-depth individual interviews and five focus groups conducted in Spanish with Mexican and Central American immigrants in one small city in California’s Central Valley (N = 61 total participants). Interviews and focus groups were audiotaped, translated into English and transcribed. Several researchers independently and iteratively read transcripts, developed and applied codes, and engaged in thematic analysis.ResultsStrongly emergent themes identified the importance of balance in health, and beliefs about the effects on salt on health. Valued for its culinary role, for bringing out the flavors in food, and used by people of all ages, salt use is part of a robust set of cultural practices. Salt was regularly mixed with foods in different combinations and ingested to restore balance, prevent disequilibrium or reduce vulnerability to diverse illnesses, promote rehydration, and address symptoms of exposure to extremes of temperature or physical or emotional stress. Statements made and practices engaged in by participants were highly suggestive of health and healing beliefs common to humoral belief systems based primarily on a hot-cold dichotomy in classifications of foods and healing behaviors. We evaluate these statements and practices in the context of the existing literature on historical and contemporary humoral beliefs in Latin American communities, in Mexico and Central America, and in the United States.ConclusionHumoral theory is a useful framework for understanding contemporary rural Latino migrant farmworkers’ perceptions of the importance of salt for their health.

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“…Hot-cold classification of herbal remedies is quite common in many medical cultures all over the world (China, Europe, Mesoamerica, South America, Iran, etc.) [332–335]. Although certain critics considered hot-cold based selection approach of herbals to be inconsistent or abstract [333, 336], recent scientific arguments support it.…”

Section: Energetic Nature (Virya) Mediated By Trpsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extraoral Taste Receptor Discovery: New Light on Ayurvedic Pharmacology

Gîlcă

Dragoș

2017

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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More and more research studies are revealing unexpectedly important roles of taste for health and pathogenesis of various diseases. Only recently it has been shown that taste receptors have many extraoral locations (e.g., stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, respiratory system, heart, brain, kidney, urinary bladder, pancreas, adipose tissue, testis, and ovary), being part of a large diffuse chemosensory system. The functional implications of these taste receptors widely dispersed in various organs or tissues shed a new light on several concepts used in ayurvedic pharmacology (dravyaguna vijnana), such as taste (rasa), postdigestive effect (vipaka), qualities (guna), and energetic nature (virya). This review summarizes the significance of extraoral taste receptors and transient receptor potential (TRP) channels for ayurvedic pharmacology, as well as the biological activities of various types of phytochemical tastants from an ayurvedic perspective. The relative importance of taste (rasa), postdigestive effect (vipaka), and energetic nature (virya) as ethnopharmacological descriptors within Ayurveda boundaries will also be discussed.

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This plant treats that illness? The hot–cold system and therapeutic procedures mediate medicinal plant use in San Miguel Tulancingo, Oaxaca, Mexico

Cited by 42 publications

References 14 publications

An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used in Zacatecas state, Mexico

An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used in Zacatecas state, Mexico

An ethnographic study of salt use and humoral concepts in a Latino farm worker community in California’s Central Valley

Extraoral Taste Receptor Discovery: New Light on Ayurvedic Pharmacology

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