Astonishing diversity—the medicinal plant markets of Bogotá, Colombia

Abstract Background Despite the importance of local markets as a source of medicinal plants in Colombia, comparatively little comparative research reports on the pharmacopoeiae sold. This stands in contrast to wealth of available information for other components of plant use in Colombia and other co...

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Main Authors: Rainer W. Bussmann, Narel Y. Paniagua Zambrana, Carolina Romero, Robbie E. Hart
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2018-06-01
Series:Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13002-018-0241-8
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author Rainer W. Bussmann
Narel Y. Paniagua Zambrana
Carolina Romero
Robbie E. Hart
author_facet Rainer W. Bussmann
Narel Y. Paniagua Zambrana
Carolina Romero
Robbie E. Hart
author_sort Rainer W. Bussmann
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background Despite the importance of local markets as a source of medicinal plants in Colombia, comparatively little comparative research reports on the pharmacopoeiae sold. This stands in contrast to wealth of available information for other components of plant use in Colombia and other countries. The present provides a detailed inventory of the medicinal plant markets in the Bogotá metropolitan area, hypothesizing that the species composition, and medicinal applications, would differ across markets of the city. Methods From December 2014 to February 2016, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 plant vendors in 24 markets in Bogotá in order to elucidate more details on plant usage and provenance. Results In this study, we encountered 409 plant species belonging to 319 genera and 122 families. These were used for a total of 19 disease categories with 318 different applications. Both species composition and uses of species did show considerable differences across the metropolitan area—much higher in fact than we expected. Conclusions The present study indicated a very large species and use diversity of medicinal plants in the markets of Bogotá, with profound differences even between markets in close proximity. This might be explained by the great differences in the origin of populations in Bogotá, the floristic diversity in their regions of origin, and their very distinct plant use knowledge and preferences that are transferred to the markets through customer demand. Our study clearly indicated that studies in single markets cannot give an in-depth overview on the plant supply and use in large metropolitan areas.
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spelling doaj.art-ae00d9fc1e984755a73c7ba3c63cf1f22022-12-21T23:34:38ZengBMCJournal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine1746-42692018-06-0114114710.1186/s13002-018-0241-8Astonishing diversity—the medicinal plant markets of Bogotá, ColombiaRainer W. Bussmann0Narel Y. Paniagua Zambrana1Carolina Romero2Robbie E. Hart3Museo Nacional de Historia NaturalHerbario Nacional de Bolivia, Instituto de Ecología-UMSAWilliam L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical GardenWilliam L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical GardenAbstract Background Despite the importance of local markets as a source of medicinal plants in Colombia, comparatively little comparative research reports on the pharmacopoeiae sold. This stands in contrast to wealth of available information for other components of plant use in Colombia and other countries. The present provides a detailed inventory of the medicinal plant markets in the Bogotá metropolitan area, hypothesizing that the species composition, and medicinal applications, would differ across markets of the city. Methods From December 2014 to February 2016, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 plant vendors in 24 markets in Bogotá in order to elucidate more details on plant usage and provenance. Results In this study, we encountered 409 plant species belonging to 319 genera and 122 families. These were used for a total of 19 disease categories with 318 different applications. Both species composition and uses of species did show considerable differences across the metropolitan area—much higher in fact than we expected. Conclusions The present study indicated a very large species and use diversity of medicinal plants in the markets of Bogotá, with profound differences even between markets in close proximity. This might be explained by the great differences in the origin of populations in Bogotá, the floristic diversity in their regions of origin, and their very distinct plant use knowledge and preferences that are transferred to the markets through customer demand. Our study clearly indicated that studies in single markets cannot give an in-depth overview on the plant supply and use in large metropolitan areas.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13002-018-0241-8Medicinal plantsMarketsColombiaGlobalization
spellingShingle Rainer W. Bussmann
Narel Y. Paniagua Zambrana
Carolina Romero
Robbie E. Hart
Astonishing diversity—the medicinal plant markets of Bogotá, Colombia
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Medicinal plants
Markets
Colombia
Globalization
title Astonishing diversity—the medicinal plant markets of Bogotá, Colombia
title_full Astonishing diversity—the medicinal plant markets of Bogotá, Colombia
title_fullStr Astonishing diversity—the medicinal plant markets of Bogotá, Colombia
title_full_unstemmed Astonishing diversity—the medicinal plant markets of Bogotá, Colombia
title_short Astonishing diversity—the medicinal plant markets of Bogotá, Colombia
title_sort astonishing diversity the medicinal plant markets of bogota colombia
topic Medicinal plants
Markets
Colombia
Globalization
url http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13002-018-0241-8
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