Ethnobotanical Study of the Sannio Area, Campania, Southern Italy
Ethnobotanical Study of the Sannio Area, Campania, Southern Italy Carmine Guarino, Luciana De Simone and Simona Santoro Research Abstract Ethnobotanical study of the Sannio area, in the province In the past medicinal plants were the first defence against of Benevento (SE-Italy) has been carried out on the basis diseases and they represented the only available thera- of both bibliographic sources and interviews in the field. In peutic means until chemistry started using nature as a total 365 species in 59 families were identified. Of these model for the synthesis of therapeutically active mole- species, 361 are medicinal plants, 82 for anthropic use cules. Nowadays, medicinal plants are still, in part, reso- lutive remedies, but, above all, they represent the first and 35 for veterinary use. source of active principles for medicaments as well as an essential source of molecular material for hemi-synthe- Riassunto sis processes (Calixto 2000, Cragg et al. 1997, De Smet 1997, Shu 1998). Uno studio etnobotanico del Sannio, in provincia di Be- nevento (SE-Italy), è stato effettuato sia sulla base di fon- Therefore, the interest in medicinal plants has remark- ti bibliografiche che di interviste in campo. In totale, 365 ably increased lately. In fact, a lot of works about vege- specie di 59 famiglie sono state censite. Di queste specie, table chemical structures and pharmaceutical properties 265 sono piante medicinali, 82 per uso antropico e 35 per have appeared. These works not only aim at discover- uso veterinario. ing new usable essences, but also at testing – by means of modern techniques - the properties and the effects of many plants now fallen into disuse or employed by popu- Introduction lar medicine in the past.
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