Medicinal Plants of Trinidad and Tobago: Selection of Antidiabetic Remedies Angelle L
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Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 7-8-2016 Medicinal Plants of Trinidad and Tobago: Selection of Antidiabetic Remedies Angelle L. Bullard-Roberts Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FIDC000775 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Alternative and Complementary Medicine Commons, Biology Commons, Botany Commons, and the Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases Commons Recommended Citation Bullard-Roberts, Angelle L., "Medicinal Plants of Trinidad and Tobago: Selection of Antidiabetic Remedies" (2016). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2546. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2546 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida MEDICINAL PLANTS OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: SELECTION OF ANTIDIABETIC REMEDIES A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in BIOLOGY by Angelle L. Bullard-Roberts 2016 To: Dean Michael R. Heithaus College of Arts, Sciences and Education This dissertation, written by Angelle L. Bullard-Roberts and entitled Medicinal Plants of Trinidad and Tobago: Selection of Antidiabetic Remedies, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. ____________________________________ Suzanne Koptur ____________________________________ Jennifer Richards ____________________________________ J. Martin Quirke ____________________________________ Maria Fadiman ____________________________________ Bradley C. Bennett, Major Professor Date of Defense: July 8, 2016 The dissertation of Angelle L. Bullard-Roberts is approved. ____________________________________ Dean Michael R. Heithaus College of Arts, Sciences and Education ____________________________________ Andrés G. Gil Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School Florida International University, 2016 ii © Copyright 2016 by Angelle L. Bullard-Roberts All rights reserved. iii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my mother, Arline B. Andrews-Bullard (28♥04♥1945 ~ 16♥07♥2015) who introduced me to Ethnobotany without even knowing it! Visits to family and friends became plant collection field trips that produced a veritable Garden of Eden in our backyard. Episodes of accident or illness among her five offspring became testing grounds for many natural remedies which she had read about in her health and recipe book collection. Then in her role as manager of our family-owned health-food store, that knowledge that she had gathered from field and literature was imparted to anyone who would listen. Though I did not inherit Mommy’s gifts of fecundity, I earnestly hope to leave an indelible mark in the lives of T&T’s people with my medicinal plant research. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS So many to thank, so few pages… Thanks be to God, for life and a measure of health and mental fortitude to finally see this moment. Thanks to my major professor, Dr. Bradley C. Bennett for sticking with me to the last word and to my committee members, Dr. Koptur, Dr. Richards, Dr. Quirke and Dr. Fadiman who were always gracious, helpful, and hopeful (sometimes more so than I) to get me to this point. Thanks to the funding agencies that supported my field and lab work: the FIU Graduate School - DEA Fellowship; the Garden Club of America - Anne Chatham Medicinal Botany Fellowship; the Kelly Foundation Scholarship Fund for Tropical Botany and the South Florida Chapter of the Explorer’s Club. Thanks to my Ethnobotany sisters, Cassy Quave and Janna Rose, for making the path smoother and to the Koptur lab for adopting me when I had no lab family left. Thanks to Sasha, Asha and Xtina from the Jaffe and Berry Labs at BBC for sharing their space, equipment and expertise. Thanks to James and Kate at the Quave Lab at Emory University for helping me to navigate through failed trials and strange calculations. Thanks to my Biology colleagues and fellow TAs through the years, who gave books or reagents, switched teaching sections, shared life stories and generally made me feel more human through the process: Adriana, Alberto, Alina, Amy, Anya, Beyte, Boris, Evonne, Danielle, Ian, Jose, Kristie, Lilly, Lorenzo, Marby, Marcy, Monica, Nicole, Nikeisha, Roberto, Roxaneh, Sylvia, Tanya, Vanessa, Vivian, & Yadira. v Thanks to the FIU Trini Bio crew who went before, Bryan, Liz and Nicole – It’s about time! Ent?! Thanks to the FIU Biology staff—the friendliest office on campus! To: Helen, Eliana, Alex, Wilma, (also Erin, Ileana and Tony from the Bio Grad office), for helping make light of paperwork requirements. Thanks to colleagues and students of the Biology Department at the University of the Southern Caribbean for treating me as if I’d never left and for bending over backward to make my research in T&T a success: Cams, Dav, Denise, Clairene, Dr. Scobie, Dr. Antwi, Mr. Lawrence, Camille & the Lab Techs. Special thanks to Mr. Anthony Brumble for his enthusiasm and interest in helping me with my first round of fieldwork. Thanks also to the faculty, staff and administration of USC for access to facilities and space. Thanks to each Trinbagonian—from Charlotteville to Signal Hill, Scarborough to Roxborough, Bon Accord to Delaford, Paramin to Point Fortin, Moruga to Cumana, Sangre Grande to Petit Valley, Toco to Sando and everywhere in between—who spent even 1 minute telling me what you know about T&T plants. Special thanks to herbalists, Clarence Charles and Francis Morean for the personal interest they took in my project and for going with me on remote plant collection trips. Thanks to my friends and extended family in T&T who opened their homes and hearts, gave up their bed, kept me fed, helped me find tanties and grannies, translated Trini interviews, and even went “on D road” with me! To: Angie & Calvin, Bebe & Selwyn, Cams & Mom Nunes, Candy & Eldon, Candy B, Aunty Carol, Cassy B, Cheryl & Anthony, Cleo &Vishnu, Clinton P., Daddy & Joan, Dav & Moms, Uncle George, vi Heather & Chad, Jerome and Donna, Judymae & Mom, Kami & Calvin, Kathy, Uncle Kenneth, Kevon, Louis, Manda-Panda & Andre, and anyone I may have missed, a million THANK YOUS! Thanks to my church families, who succored me through many stresses, with their prayers and tears, room and board, packing and moving, calling and texting, soups and smoothies and so much more! Special thanks to my church siblings, (you know who you are), who stayed in touch through overnight Miami to Tally trips, held my hand through emergency hospitalizations and surgeries and loved me through the loss of my Mom…you gave more than I could ever ask for, more than I could ever repay. To my sisters, Leanie, Vernie and Av and my niece, Ariselle: thanks for always being positive and for reminding me of where I’ve come from, where I’m going and why this matters. To my brother, Al: thanks for blindly throwing your means behind me so I could focus on finishing. I have no idea why you kept on believing that I could do it, but I’m surely glad you did. To my husband, Ronnie, fellow dissertator, best (and worst) critic, pillow-talk buddy, bouncer-offer-of-ideas: I cannot imagine how I would have gotten to this point without you to listen to my fears, be my voice of reason, AND to do all the shopping! I’m so glad for your patience and empathy even when you did not understand! This achievement is as much yours as it is mine! Finally, again, THANKS BE TO GOD, with whom NOTHING shall be IMPOSSIBLE! Luke 1:37 vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION MEDICINAL PLANTS OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: SELECTION OF ANTIDIABETIC REMEDIES by Angelle L. Bullard-Roberts Florida International University, 2016 Miami, Florida Professor Bradley C. Bennett, Major Professor Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of non-infectious diseases that cause hyperglycemia. DM symptoms were first clinically described by ancient Greek physicians whose prescriptions included plant-based remedies. Today, DM affects >400 million people globally and prevalence rates are rapidly increasing in developing countries where basic healthcare relies on local knowledge of botanical remedies. Many developing countries are home to diverse peoples and plants—providing fodder for varied plant-selection strategies and unique botanical pharmacopoeias. I addressed the plant-selection strategies used in a multi-ethnic, developing country, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), to ascertain their role in shaping the local antidiabetic pharmacopoeia and to assess their benefits and risks in identifying safe and useful remedies. Using literature reviews, field surveys, and laboratory bioassays, I completed three categories of analysis. Ethnobotanical analyses showed that T&T’s antidiabetic pharmacopoeia is primarily of recent origin as >50% of the 48 historical DM remedies were Neotropical natives, including congenerics of well-known medicinal Paleotropical genera. viii Nevertheless, conservative knowledge transmission was also evident as several Paleotropical species of T&T’s pharmacopoeia, including Momordica charantia and Catharanthus roseus were also used in Africa, India and across the Caribbean. Paleotropical natives with a long history of use are likely to be safer remedies. Ethno-medicinal analyses of the pre- and post-2000 DM remedies of T&T, totaling 99 species, suggest that the centuries-old hot/cold folk disease-model was the model predominantly used in plant-selection. Parallels found between T&T folk concepts and biomedical mechanisms of DM provide probable bases for efficacy but the chronic use of purgatives and bitter-tasting plants is likely to be risky. Phytochemical analyses revealed that 69% of the tested plant extracts contained phenolic compounds, with more than half producing >80% alpha-glucosidase inhibition.