Medicinal and Useful Plants in the Tradition of Rotonda, Pollino National Park, Southern Italy Paola Di Sanzo, Laura De Martino, Emilia Mancini and Vincenzo De Feo*
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Di Sanzo et al. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2013, 9:19 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/9/1/19 JOURNAL OF ETHNOBIOLOGY AND ETHNOMEDICINE RESEARCH Open Access Medicinal and useful plants in the tradition of Rotonda, Pollino National Park, Southern Italy Paola Di Sanzo, Laura De Martino, Emilia Mancini and Vincenzo De Feo* Abstract Background: This paper reports an ethnobotanical survey of the traditional uses of medicinal and useful plants in an area of the Pollino National Park, Basilicata, Southern Italy. The study, conducted between 2009 and 2010, gathered information on the medicinal plants traditionally used in the neighbourhood of town of Rotonda, in the Pollino National Park, that appears have very rich and interesting ethnopharmacological traditions. Methods: In all, we interviewed 120 key informants, whose age ranged between 50 and 95 years. Results: The research resulted to the identification of 78 medicinal plants belonging to 46 families. Among the species reported, 59 are used in human medicine, 18 for domestic use, 8 in veterinary medicine. Several plants have been reported in previous studies, but with different uses, or never reported. Conclusions: Data obtained showed that in the studied area the folk use of plants is alive and still derives from daily practice. Keywords: Ethnopharmacology, Traditional medicine, Basilicata region, Calabria region Background Italy, we can still witness a large folk use of plants and a The plant kingdom represents a source of drugs and foods. rich and intense memory of their uses is present. Due to Therefore, with the tendency in modern medicine to as- history, economy and tradition, this area could potentially similate and re-assimilate natural remedies in common be a precious source of information already lost in other practice, under various forms, the potential of regional flora places [3]. becomes important [1]. Systematic exploration of trad- Obviously, ethnobotanical studies are very important itional Pharmacopoeias are urgently required in Southern in those areas, in which the ancient traditions are alive Europe, especially in those areas which, for geographical yet. It’s noteworthy underline the value of tradition as and historical reasons, remain relatively isolated, and where something that has been an integrated part of a culture industrial development has not lead to a complete decline for more than one generation [4]. Within the sphere of of local traditions [2]. research aimed at producing a census of the heritage of Ethnobotanical studies, supporting the ethno-anthropological usage and folk traditions of useful plants, which today sciences, and studies of "material culture", are infrequent in disappear due to an increasing technological lifestyle, Italy. Generic information is sometimes present in botan- ethnobotanical inquiries have been conducted in differ- ical texts concerning handicraft uses, but the plant matter ent parts of Southern Italy, with the purpose of gather- of single artefacts is rarely defined, changing from place to ing information on traditional medicinal use of plants. place and originating peculiar local manufacturies. Ethno- In fact, Basilicata Region results partially investigated botanical uses of plants are often lost more easily in mod- and some reports on ethnobotanical research are available ern civilisation that substitutes traditional handicrafts. for this region [5-13]: in particular, a previous study of This study has been carried out in an area of Basilicata, flora, vegetation and spontaneous food plants underlined where, in evident contrast with that happens in the rest of the still low industrial and urban impact upon the area of study, considered a good source of information for ethno- botanical applications typical in the central Mediterranean * Correspondence: [email protected] Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Ponte don area [14]. Melillo, Fisciano, (Salerno) 84084, Italy © 2013 Di Sanzo et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Di Sanzo et al. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2013, 9:19 Page 2 of 9 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/9/1/19 In this work, we report about local ethnobotanical uses the first phase of the field study, people were asked to (for medicinal, veterinary and domestic purposes) of freely recall all medicinal plants and other natural rem- plants in an area of the Pollino National Park in Potenza edies that they use or have used in the past. More spe- Province, Basilicata region: this research covers the cific information was recorded later by using structured towns of Rotonda, Villa Meliscio, San Basile, Pedali, and interviews in which a specifically developed question- Viggianello. Our aim was to collect the popular knowledge naire was completed [18] (Additional file 1). on medicinal plants and their traditional uses to preserve People were asked to describe the method of use and this kind of information that is losing and to evaluate if preparation of the traditional medical remedies for each the collected data can be useful as basis for further phyto- folk taxon quoted. During the interviews, several fresh chemical studies. The available literature shows that such plant specimens or dried samples stocked in a small trans- studies can constitute the starting point for the develop- portable field herbarium were shown to the interviewed. If ment of new drugs and useful substances [15]. a plant was quoted without having any reference in the herbarium, the informant was followed in the field and in- Methods vited to show the mentioned species [13]. Study area The interviewed informants were 120 (50 men, 70 The Pollino National Park (Figure 1) is the biggest nat- women), whose ages ranged from 50 to 95 years, and ural park in Italy, spreading over more than 2000 km2 in belonged to families which had strong links with trad- areas of absolute wilderness and cultural landscapes in itional activities of the area. Most of the interviewees Southern Italy. The Park first aim is preserving the trad- (90) were aged over 60, of whom 30 were between 60 itional combination of cultural and natural landscapes as and 69, 32 between 70 and 79, 26 between 80 and 90, well as the unique plant diversity, characteristic for the and 2 were over 90 years old. According to an original region. Since the Pollino area has been isolated from the anthropological observation, women are depositaries of main industrial development until the middle of the 20th the ‘curative secrets’ of plants, a fact that becomes even century, the traditional plant knowledge is still alive more significant when we consider that lands dedicated [16,17]. The particular isolation of the mountainous to gardens and the showing of cereals are inherited area, which has been the object of our survey, and its through the female line, while only flocks descend economy, which is still partially based on small-scale through the male line [10]. Among the informants, 15 agricultural and pastoral activities, represents a good op- were farmers, while the remainder mainly building portunity for conducting studies about local of trad- workers, restaurateurs, shepherds and housewives. They itional pharmaceutical knowledge. The vegetation is all had been living in the area under study for many mainly composed by Mediterranean species: at low ele- years. The informants are aware that the information vations, the vegetation is mainly constituted by woods of they have provided will be published and that data will holmoak (Quercus ilex L.), interspersed with Mediterra- be used only for scientific purposes. nean shrubland (Quercion ilicis) and coppices of Castanea The method followed in this study is intermediate be- sativa Miller. A maquis is present in areas more tween the classic ethnobotanical systematic enumeration influenced by man, with typical shrubs (Myrtus communis and a pharmacological investigation of plant use. This L., Spartium junceum L., Viburnum tinus L.) and small approach uses the merely qualitative data of classical- trees (Arbutus unedo L., Quercus pubescens Willd., Acer ethnobotanical-systematic investigation on plants, and monsplessulanum L.). Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) wood- the numerical quantitative data of consensus, in keeping lands occur at higher elevations, together with Ilex with the guides for studies of pharmaceutical ethnology aquifolium L. and Daphne laureola L. (Aquifolio Fagetum) [18-20]. Voucher herbarium specimens were pressed, la- or Sorbus aucuparia L., Sorbus aria Crantz, Quercus cerris belled, dried and deposited in the Herbarium of the L., Acer pseudoplatanus L. and Acer lobelli Ten. (Acer Medical Botany Chair at the University of Salerno. Plant lobelii – Fagetum). In the full area of the Pollino National classification and nomenclature follows Pignatti [21] and Park, the presence of 1500 botanical taxa has been was checked by an update nomenclature (www. hypothesized [16]. theplantlist.org). Ethnobotanical methodology Ethnobotanical data analysis Field data were collected, in several time intervals, dur- The use value [22], a quantitative method that demon- ing the period 2009–2010 (December 2009-December strates the relative importance of species known locally, 2010) and ethnobotanical information on the uses