Uses of medicinal plants by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagüey, Cuba

Abstract

Background: Haitian migrants played an important role shaping Cuban culture and traditional ethnobotanical knowledge. An ethnobotanical investigation was conducted to collect information on medicinal plant use by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagüey, Cuba.

Diversity of Treegourd (Crescentia cujete) Suggests Introduction and Prehistoric Dispersal Routes into Amazonia

“…Its fruits have different shapes and sizes that are used as bowls, vessels or bottles for drinking or transporting water, bags for provisions, utensils for cooking, and eating, bailing water from canoes, construction of fish traps, manufacture of body ornaments, and musical instruments (Steward, 1948;Patiño, 1967;Morton, 1968;Price, 1982;Bennett, 1992;Heiser, 1993;Meulenberg, 2011). Medicinal uses are also similar across its distribution (Morton, 1968;Duke, 2009), which include neutralization of snake venom and intestinal parasites treatment (Otero et al, 2000;Volpato et al, 2009;Ramos, 2015;Paulo, 2016).…”

“…Its fruits have different shapes and sizes that are used as bowls, vessels or bottles for drinking or transporting water, bags for provisions, utensils for cooking, and eating, bailing water from canoes, construction of fish traps, manufacture of body ornaments, and musical instruments (Steward, 1948;Patiño, 1967;Morton, 1968;Price, 1982;Bennett, 1992;Heiser, 1993;Meulenberg, 2011). Medicinal uses are also similar across its distribution (Morton, 1968;Duke, 2009), which include neutralization of snake venom and intestinal parasites treatment (Otero et al, 2000;Volpato et al, 2009;Ramos, 2015;Paulo, 2016).While the great phenotypic variability of cultivated treegourd is a distinctive feature among Crescentia species (Gentry, 1980), its wild populations from Mexican savannahs in the Yucatan Peninsula have smaller, elongated fruits with thinner exocarps (Aguirre-Dugua et al, 2012). The indehiscent and thicker exocarp of cultivated treegourd fruits makes the spontaneous dispersal of seeds impossible (Aguirre-Dugua et al, 2012).…”

The Influence of Displacement by Human Groups Among Regions in the Medicinal Use of Natural Resource: A Case Study in Diadema, São Paulo - Brazil

“…In this context, the main forces that guide the changes in the traditional medicinal knowledge, as cited by Volpato (2009) are: (a) the adaptation of the original knowledge to the new (host) environment; and (b) the development of strategies to obtain the original remedies (Pieroni et al, 2005b;Volpato et al, 2007).…”

​A Talipariti elatus Sw. Fryxell flowers extract inhibits histamine-induced edema in mice

“…Malvaceae is a wooden botanical species that is endemic to Jamaica and Cuba ( Figure 1). 1,2 However, there is little information about the biological properties of this species. 3 Nonclinical studies have provided evidence on some biological activities of quercetin, rutin, and gossypitrin, the major flavonoids of T. elatus flowers.…”