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Medical Ethnobotany of the Bissau-Guinean Community of Migrants Living in Northern Italy and Comparison with the Ethnopharmacology of Guinea-Bissau

This study compares the knowledge of medicinal plants of Bissau-Guinean migrants now established in Italy with the ethnopharmacology still present in their country of origin. We also investigated how traditional ethnobotanical knowledge is changing following the phenomenon of migration from Africa t...

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Autores principales: Sambù, Alfredo, Cornara, Laura, Catarino, Luís, Indjai, Bucar, Biagi, Marco, Giordani, Paolo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10181441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37176967
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants12091909
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author Sambù, Alfredo
Cornara, Laura
Catarino, Luís
Indjai, Bucar
Biagi, Marco
Giordani, Paolo
author_facet Sambù, Alfredo
Cornara, Laura
Catarino, Luís
Indjai, Bucar
Biagi, Marco
Giordani, Paolo
author_sort Sambù, Alfredo
collection PubMed
description This study compares the knowledge of medicinal plants of Bissau-Guinean migrants now established in Italy with the ethnopharmacology still present in their country of origin. We also investigated how traditional ethnobotanical knowledge is changing following the phenomenon of migration from Africa to Europe. The ethnobotanical data were collected during 2017–2018, by interviewing 49 informants belonging to 8 ethnic groups, living in 8 provinces of northern Italy. The final inventory of botanical taxa included 81 species belonging to 34 families, with Fabaceae and Malvaceae the most represented, followed by Euphorbiaceae, Apocynaceae, Combretaceae, and Solanaceae. Plant remedies were used to treat 21 ailment categories, such as fever, internal infections, intestinal and respiratory problems, and pains. The traditional ethnobotanical knowledge of Bissau-Guinean migrants in Italy was associated with gender, with women showing the highest knowledge. In addition, a negative relationship was observed between the maintenance of this knowledge and the number of years migrants have spent in Italy. Overall, a loss of knowledge was observed in the less numerous ethnic groups. However, traditional preparations based on plants from the country of origin are in general well preserved to maintain a good state of health. Our work could help in transferring to the next generation the cultural heritage of Bissau-Guinean people permanently moved to European Countries.
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spelling pubmed-101814412023-05-13 Medical Ethnobotany of the Bissau-Guinean Community of Migrants Living in Northern Italy and Comparison with the Ethnopharmacology of Guinea-Bissau Sambù, Alfredo Cornara, Laura Catarino, Luís Indjai, Bucar Biagi, Marco Giordani, Paolo Plants (Basel) Article This study compares the knowledge of medicinal plants of Bissau-Guinean migrants now established in Italy with the ethnopharmacology still present in their country of origin. We also investigated how traditional ethnobotanical knowledge is changing following the phenomenon of migration from Africa to Europe. The ethnobotanical data were collected during 2017–2018, by interviewing 49 informants belonging to 8 ethnic groups, living in 8 provinces of northern Italy. The final inventory of botanical taxa included 81 species belonging to 34 families, with Fabaceae and Malvaceae the most represented, followed by Euphorbiaceae, Apocynaceae, Combretaceae, and Solanaceae. Plant remedies were used to treat 21 ailment categories, such as fever, internal infections, intestinal and respiratory problems, and pains. The traditional ethnobotanical knowledge of Bissau-Guinean migrants in Italy was associated with gender, with women showing the highest knowledge. In addition, a negative relationship was observed between the maintenance of this knowledge and the number of years migrants have spent in Italy. Overall, a loss of knowledge was observed in the less numerous ethnic groups. However, traditional preparations based on plants from the country of origin are in general well preserved to maintain a good state of health. Our work could help in transferring to the next generation the cultural heritage of Bissau-Guinean people permanently moved to European Countries. MDPI 2023-05-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10181441/ /pubmed/37176967 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants12091909 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sambù, Alfredo
Cornara, Laura
Catarino, Luís
Indjai, Bucar
Biagi, Marco
Giordani, Paolo
Medical Ethnobotany of the Bissau-Guinean Community of Migrants Living in Northern Italy and Comparison with the Ethnopharmacology of Guinea-Bissau
title Medical Ethnobotany of the Bissau-Guinean Community of Migrants Living in Northern Italy and Comparison with the Ethnopharmacology of Guinea-Bissau
title_full Medical Ethnobotany of the Bissau-Guinean Community of Migrants Living in Northern Italy and Comparison with the Ethnopharmacology of Guinea-Bissau
title_fullStr Medical Ethnobotany of the Bissau-Guinean Community of Migrants Living in Northern Italy and Comparison with the Ethnopharmacology of Guinea-Bissau
title_full_unstemmed Medical Ethnobotany of the Bissau-Guinean Community of Migrants Living in Northern Italy and Comparison with the Ethnopharmacology of Guinea-Bissau
title_short Medical Ethnobotany of the Bissau-Guinean Community of Migrants Living in Northern Italy and Comparison with the Ethnopharmacology of Guinea-Bissau
title_sort medical ethnobotany of the bissau-guinean community of migrants living in northern italy and comparison with the ethnopharmacology of guinea-bissau
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10181441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37176967
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants12091909
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