CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

In the rural and indigenous communities of Argentina, medicinal plants play a very important role in the care of people?s health. This strong relationship between people and medicinal plants could be explained because some rural or aboriginal communities are isolated not only as a result of the territorial extension, but also because of economic factors and the absence of modern medicine. Moreover, in these communities the traditional medicine is better accepted from a spiritual and cultural point of view. The number of medicinal plants collected and used by the first inhabitants of the current Argentine territory was increased with the contribution received by the European migrants related to their pharmacological or medicinal properties. Currently, the market related to the aromatic and medicinal plants has grown in urban areas as a result of increasing interest to use natural products for healthcare. In Argentina, the use of traditional medicine involves more than 60% of the population, and many of the medicinal plants are sold in pharmacies, street markets, or natural products shops. In recent years, the advancement of the agricultural practices over natural areas has led to a significant loss of the medicinal plants? diversity, and this fact negatively impacts the continuoussupply of the urban markets. A systematic literature survey was carried out in scientific databases, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar about the research carried out on the folkloric practice versus evidence-based medicine, usingmedicinal plants. Thus, this chapter provides molecular, phytochemical, genetic, and pharmacological evidence to support the traditional indigenous phytotherapy practiced in Argentina. In this chapter, we have not provided information about aromatic plants that produce essential oils responsible for bioactivity. This topic was previously reviewed by our group.

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