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Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Maonan people in China

BACKGROUND: This paper is based on an ethnobotanical investigation that focused on the traditional medicinal plants used by local Maonan people to treat human diseases in Maonan concentration regions. The Maonan people have relied on traditional medicine since ancient times, especially medicinal pla...

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Autores principales: Hong, Liya, Guo, Zhiyong, Huang, Kunhui, Wei, Shanjun, Liu, Bo, Meng, Shaowu, Long, Chunlin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449599/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25925830
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13002-015-0019-1
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author Hong, Liya
Guo, Zhiyong
Huang, Kunhui
Wei, Shanjun
Liu, Bo
Meng, Shaowu
Long, Chunlin
author_facet Hong, Liya
Guo, Zhiyong
Huang, Kunhui
Wei, Shanjun
Liu, Bo
Meng, Shaowu
Long, Chunlin
author_sort Hong, Liya
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: This paper is based on an ethnobotanical investigation that focused on the traditional medicinal plants used by local Maonan people to treat human diseases in Maonan concentration regions. The Maonan people have relied on traditional medicine since ancient times, especially medicinal plants. The aim of this study is to document medicinal plants used by the Maonans and to report the status of medicinal plants and associated traditional knowledge. METHODS: Ethnobotanical data were collected from June 2012 to September 2014 in Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, northern Guangxi, southwest China. In total, 118 knowledgeable informants were interviewed. Following statistically sampling method, eighteen villages from 5 townships were selected to conduct field investigations. Information was collected through the approache of participatory observation, semi-structured interviews, ranking exercises, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and participatory rural appraisals. RESULTS: A total of 368 medicinal plant species were investigated and documented together with their medicinal uses by the Maonans, most of which were obtained from the wild ecosystems. The plants were used to treat 95 human diseases. Grinding was a widely used method to prepare traditional herbal medicines. There were significant relationships between gender and age, and between gender and informants’ knowledge of medicinal plant use. Deforestation for agricultural purposes was identified as the most destructive factor of medicinal plants, followed by drought and over-harvest. CONCLUSIONS: The species diversity of medicinal plants used by the Maonans in the study area was very rich. Medicinal plants played a significant role in healing various human disorders in the Maonan communities. However, the conflicts between traditional inheriting system and recent socio-economic changes (and other factors) resulted in the reduction or loss of both medicinal plants and associated indigenous knowledge. Thus, conservation efforts and policies, and innovation of inheriting system are necessary for protecting the medicinal plants and associated indigenous knowledge. Awareness is also needed to be raised among local Maonans focusing on sustainable utilization and management of both medicinal plants and traditional knowledge.
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spelling pubmed-44495992015-05-31 Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Maonan people in China Hong, Liya Guo, Zhiyong Huang, Kunhui Wei, Shanjun Liu, Bo Meng, Shaowu Long, Chunlin J Ethnobiol Ethnomed Research BACKGROUND: This paper is based on an ethnobotanical investigation that focused on the traditional medicinal plants used by local Maonan people to treat human diseases in Maonan concentration regions. The Maonan people have relied on traditional medicine since ancient times, especially medicinal plants. The aim of this study is to document medicinal plants used by the Maonans and to report the status of medicinal plants and associated traditional knowledge. METHODS: Ethnobotanical data were collected from June 2012 to September 2014 in Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, northern Guangxi, southwest China. In total, 118 knowledgeable informants were interviewed. Following statistically sampling method, eighteen villages from 5 townships were selected to conduct field investigations. Information was collected through the approache of participatory observation, semi-structured interviews, ranking exercises, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and participatory rural appraisals. RESULTS: A total of 368 medicinal plant species were investigated and documented together with their medicinal uses by the Maonans, most of which were obtained from the wild ecosystems. The plants were used to treat 95 human diseases. Grinding was a widely used method to prepare traditional herbal medicines. There were significant relationships between gender and age, and between gender and informants’ knowledge of medicinal plant use. Deforestation for agricultural purposes was identified as the most destructive factor of medicinal plants, followed by drought and over-harvest. CONCLUSIONS: The species diversity of medicinal plants used by the Maonans in the study area was very rich. Medicinal plants played a significant role in healing various human disorders in the Maonan communities. However, the conflicts between traditional inheriting system and recent socio-economic changes (and other factors) resulted in the reduction or loss of both medicinal plants and associated indigenous knowledge. Thus, conservation efforts and policies, and innovation of inheriting system are necessary for protecting the medicinal plants and associated indigenous knowledge. Awareness is also needed to be raised among local Maonans focusing on sustainable utilization and management of both medicinal plants and traditional knowledge. BioMed Central 2015-04-30 /pmc/articles/PMC4449599/ /pubmed/25925830 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13002-015-0019-1 Text en © Hong et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Hong, Liya
Guo, Zhiyong
Huang, Kunhui
Wei, Shanjun
Liu, Bo
Meng, Shaowu
Long, Chunlin
Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Maonan people in China
title Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Maonan people in China
title_full Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Maonan people in China
title_fullStr Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Maonan people in China
title_full_unstemmed Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Maonan people in China
title_short Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Maonan people in China
title_sort ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by maonan people in china
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449599/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25925830
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13002-015-0019-1
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