Journal of Ethnopharmacology 77 (2001) 57–70 www.elsevier.com/locate/jethpharm Studies on pharmaceutical ethnobotany in the region of Pallars (Pyrenees, Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula). Part I. General results and new or very rare medicinal plants Antoni Agelet, Joan Valle`s * Laboratori de Bota`nica, Facultat de Farma`cia, Uni6ersitat de Barcelona. A6. Joan XXIII s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain Received 12 November 2000; received in revised form 30 April 2001; accepted 12 May 2001 Abstract An ethnobotanical survey was carried out in the region called Pallars — constituted by two districts, Pallars Sobira` and Pallars Jussa` — situated in the Central Pyrenees, in North West Catalonia (Iberian Peninsula), with an approximate area of 2530 km2 and a population of 19 000. We obtained data on 437 plant species used for health care through interviews with 264 people. We detected 867 unreported or uncommon uses corresponding to 272 plant species, 52 of which had never or very rarely been cited as medicinal. To present the most important findings concerning the ethnopharmacology of the area studied, this first part includes the general results and the new or very scarcely reported medicinal vascular plants. Further papers will deal with unreported or very uncommon uses for known medicinal plant species and with medicinal non-vascular plants. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Ethnobotany; Quantitative ethnobotany; Pyrenees; Catalonia; Medicinal plants; Folk medicine 1. Introduction treated in Chadwick and Marsh (1994). Taking into account the precedent comments, in the last years we According to Alcorn (1995), the aims of ethnobotany are carrying out ethnobotanical studies in different are twofold: to document facts about plant use and regions of Catalonia (see Bonet et al., 1999, and refer- management and to describe roles and processes in ences therein) with two purposes: (i) to contribute to plant use. These two aims are contextualized by the the knowledge and the preservation of a part of the applied goal of developing new plant-derived products, national cultural heritage; and (ii) to find out new or among which medicines are very relevant (Croom, rare uses of medicinal plants, which could lead to the 1983; Hedberg, 1993). Several authors have remarked use of new plant-derived medicines. This kind of re- that the ethno-directed investigations, i.e. those carried search is not rare in Europe, and in particular in the out on the basis of traditional plants uses, are more countries of the Iberian Peninsula, although it is not so efficient that the random screening in the search for common as in many less-industrialized countries. In new drugs (Cox and Balick, 1994; Khafagi and fact ethnobotanical studies in industrialized countries Dewedar, 2000). The different goals require different are particularly urgent, because in the last few genera- approaches, and that is why ethnobotany has been tions there has been a considerable loss of traditional defined as a discipline placed in the crossroad between knowledge about plants, and especially about medicinal social and natural sciences (Barrau, 1971). Prance uses. On the one hand, rural places have suffered an (1991) insisted in the interdisciplinary aspect of ethnob- important depopulation, and, on the other hand, peo- otany and in its link with the development of new ple still living there adopted (at least partly) the so- pharmaceuticals, and the latter aspect is more deeply called ‘modern’ culture to the detriment of their ‘traditional’ one, considered inferior, in a process that * Corresponding author. Fax: +34-9340-35879. we can define as acculturation (Ember and Ember, E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Valle`s). 1997). The list of European and Iberian contributions 0378-8741/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0378-8741(01)00262-8 58 A. Agelet, J. Valle`s / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 77 (2001) 57–70 to ethnobotany — basically pharmaceutical ethnob- district, with some peaks around 2000 m, has an area of otany — given in Raja et al. (1997) and Bonet et al. 1290 km2 and a population of 13 760. The predominat- (1999) can be updated with the citation of some recent ing climate is submediterranean, but alpine and sub- works, such as Ferna´ndez-Lo´pez et al. (1996) and alpine climates characterize the Northern portion of the Agelet (1999), the basis for the present paper), Guar- territory studied, and mediterranean climate is typical rera (1999), Pieroni (1999, 2000), Ferna´ndez-Ocan˜a of the Southern plains and close Prepyrenean moun- (2000) and Ivancheva and Stantcheva (2000). tains. Rainfall ranges from 600 to 1300 mm/year — Our work in the region presently considered was snow being a normal phenomenon in many zones and conducted with both above-stated objectives, and this mean temperature oscillates between −3 °C (January) paper mainly presents the first part of the results deal- and 24 °C (July). The altitudinal and climatic variation ing with the second of those purposes, i.e. the applied cause a very diverse vegetal landscape. According to research on popular phytotherapy that is relevant for Folch et al. (1984), we can find in Pallars the following the search for new drugs, on the basis of the conviction types of vegetation dominia: (i) mediterranean and that plants from the Mediterranean region have a real submediterranean mountain, with oak (Quercus medicinal potential. The territory studied (Fig. 1) is faginea, Q. pubescens) and holm-oak (Q. ilex) forests constituted by two mountain districts (‘comarca’,in and their series; (ii) Central European mountain, with plural ‘comarques’, in Catalan) situated in the Pyrenees: beech (Fagus syl6atica) and pine (Pinus syl6estris) el Pallars Jussa` (or el Baix Pallars) and el Pallars Sobira` forests — the former rather scarce; (iii) alpine and (or l’Alt Pallars); both areas together are known as subalpine mountain, with meadows and spruce (Abies Pallars and are defined by the river Noguera Pallaresa, alba) and pine (P. uncinata) forests; (ii) riparian vegeta- which crosses them from North to South. El Pallars tion, with herbaceous communities and willow (Salix Sobira`, a clearly Pyrenean district, with different peaks purpurea) and alder (Alnus glutinosa) forests. around 3000 m, has an area of 1376 km2 and a popula- From the second half of 19th century, a constant tion of 5050. El Pallars Jussa`, basically a Prepyrenean decrease in the population has been observed in Pallars, which has reduced from more than 50 000 in 1850 to the present 19 000 (Sabarte´s, 1993). This process has been particularly dramatic from 1960. People left the region to go to large cities, as Barcelona, Catalonia’s capital, and, on the other hand, small settlements or isolated farms (called in Catalan ‘mas’ or ‘masia’,in plural ‘masos’ or ‘masies’) were abandoned in favor of larger villages. The depopulation has been a current trend in rural areas in the country, especially in the mountains, of which Pallars constitute one of the most- clearest examples. A relative isolation has been added to the problems of people in Pallars, because, until recent times, the communication network (roads, rail- ways) was very deficient. This fact caused that el Pallars Jussa` and el Pallars Sobira` are two districts which are rather marginal in the Catalan economy. Both districts belong to the socioeconomical territorial unit called Catalan High Pyrenees (Carreras, 1983), which com- prises the main mountain zones in the country. Agricul- ture and livestock-raising are the basis of Pallars economy, even though tertiary sector and other activi- ties as iron mining and forestry are also relevant. Different authors contributed to the study of ethnob- otany — in the wide sense — in Pallars. Among them, Ramon Violant i Simorra has been particularly active. He was born in Pallars and he studied his region before the great depopulation suffered in this century; his numerous articles, published between 1930 and 1960, have been reedited together (Violant, 1979–1981). We can also cite the works of Griera (1923–1964), Llensa Fig. 1. Location of the areas studied in Europe and in Catalonia (1946, 1950, 1953, 1959), Font (1948, 1961), Llu´ıs (shaded areas: 1, El Pallars Sobira`; 2, El Pallars Jussa`). (1967) and Amades (1982). Nevertheless, data concern- A. Agelet, J. Valle`s / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 77 (2001) 57–70 59 ing popular uses of medicinal plants are scarce and 3. Results often deficient. We established a catalogue of Pallars ethnoflora con- sisting of 529 species, 437 of which (82.6%) are used in 2. Methodology the field of health, 60 (11.34%) have other uses (among which food is the most important) and 32 (6.04%) have Information was obtained by the method of the only popular names, but no use. The 437 health plants ethnobotanical interview with people without scientific can be grouped in the following way, taking into ac- culture, born or having lived most of their lives in the count that one plant may belong at the same time to region studied, and usually quite elderly. During our more than one group: 410 (93.82%) therapeutic, 94 meetings with people, we tried to assess every question (21.51%) prophylactic, 40 (9.15%) with magicoreligious linked to the uses of plants by people with health use, 12 (2.74%) diagnostic elements, 55 (12.58%) with purposes, in persons and animals. We did that through other uses linked with health; 146 (33.4%) plants are general conversations without a closed questionnaire, considered noxious or toxic. asking people to collect plants with us and to show us The complete catalogue of the ethnoflora of the areas where and how they stored the plants and how they studied is given in Agelet (1999). We are presenting in prepared the remedies; if it was not possible to collect this paper the general results of the work concerning plants with the informants, specimens collected by pharmaceutical ethnobotany as well as the information ourselves in the region were shown to them to confirm about plants unreported to date as medicinal.