Trends in Medicinal Uses of Edible Wild Vertebrates in Brazil

Abstract

The use of food medicines is a widespread practice worldwide. In Brazil, such use is often associated with wild animals, mostly focusing on vertebrate species. Here we assessed taxonomic and ecological trends in traditional uses of wild edible vertebrates in the country, through an extensive ethnobiological database analysis. Our results showed that at least 165 health conditions are reportedly treated by edible vertebrate species (n = 204), mostly fishes and mammals. However, reptiles stand out presenting a higher plasticity in the treatment of multiple health conditions. Considering the 20 disease categories recorded, treatment prescriptions were similar within continental (i.e., terrestrial and freshwater) and also within coastal and marine habitats, which may reflect locally related trends in occurrence and use of the medicinal fauna. The comprehension of the multiplicity and trends in the therapeutic uses of Brazilian vertebrates is of particular interest from a conservation perspective, as several threatened species were recorded.

Ethno-medicinal uses of vertebrates in the Chitwan-Annapurna Landscape, central Nepal

“…The uses of ethno-medicines prepared from various animal body parts and products were also reported in previous studies [ 3 – 5 , 14 , 32 , 33 , 42 , 55 , 94 ]. The animal parts used for treating different ailments were of 22 types.…”

“…Studying about zootherapy allows us to understand different aspects of social and cultural systems of indigenous people and also find out their inter-relationships between people and animals [ 29 , 32 ]. In addition to this, investigating the use of animals in traditional medicine could highlight an important aspect of indigenous knowledge [ 27 , 33 ]. Recent studies have shown that there is a loss of many animal species [ 34 , 35 ] as they are used in different traditional systems such as Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy, Chinese and Tibetan traditional medicines [ 9 , 19 , 36 , 37 ].…”

Zootherapeutic uses of animals and their parts: an important element of the traditional knowledge of the Tangsa and Wancho of eastern Arunachal Pradesh, North-East India

“…Surveys other than our own specifically focusing on North-East India indicated roughly the same (Kakati and Doulo 2002;Solanki and Chutia 2004;Jamir and Lal 2005;Kakati et al 2006;Chakravorty et al 2011), but some differences were nevertheless apparent. For example in South America, fishes, according to Alves et al (2017), played a major therapeutic role, but not among North-East Indian tribals (reviewed by Das et al 2017), and in Africa, reptile species in addition to birds and mammals tended to be more commonly used than fishes as traditional medicines (Vats and Thomas 2015;Williams et al 2016). Among the Wancho tribe ( Fig.…”

“…Another is how gall bladders of a great number of different species (10 in the case of the Tangsa: see earlier in this paper) can exert identical health effects? A Brazilian review of ethno-zoological uses by Alves et al (2017) even reported 67 and 60 different species in connection with treatments of asthma and rheumatism, respectively. Fact is that all vertebrates possess the same organs and these organs carry out the same functions as those in humans (Kahn 2005).…”

“…Traditional knowledge is integral to the identity of most local communities and key constituent of a community's social and physical environment, and as such, its preservation is of paramount importance. Practices using animals for varied purposes like food, medicines, entertainment, hunting, handicrafts, trade and various sociocultural practices are an important component of the body of traditional knowledge of many tribal communities around the world (Turner 2005;Singh et al 2009;Mishra et al 2009;Alves et al 2017). The bio-cultural wisdom often present among tribals has not only made them sustain their life through the ages (e.g.…”