Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants from the Dragon Boat Festival herbal markets of Qianxinan, southwestern Guizhou, China

Dragon Boat Festival herbal markets in the Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of southwestern Guizhou have a long well-conserved history. These markets, which are a feature of Buyi and Miao traditional medicines, contain a rich diversity of medicinal plants and traditional medical knowledge. Today, people in southwestern Guizhou still believe that using herbs during the Dragon Boat Festival prevents and can treat disease. In this study, we identified the fresh herbal plants sold at the herbal markets of Xingren City and Zhenfeng County in Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and quantified their importance. We identified 141 plant species (belonging to 114 genera and 61 families). The plant family with the most species was Asteraceae (14 species). Informants reported that most medicinal plants are herbaceous, with 95.7% of plants used for decoction and 30.5% used for medicinal baths. Medicinal plants are most commonly used to treat rheumatism, injury, and abdominal diseases. The utilization frequency index and relative importance values indicated that Artemisia argyi and Acorus calamus are the most important plants sold at herbal markets during the Dragon Boat Festival. The price of medicinal materials sold in the market may serve as an indicator of the conservation status of species in the region. These findings indicate that the Dragon Boat Festival herbal markets in the Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture fully embodies the characteristics of indigenous ethnomedicine and culture, and also exhibits the diversity of plant resources. We recommend that rare and endangered plants in this region be domesticated and protected.