Criterios ambientales y organolépticos en los patrones de selección y y uso de plantas medicinales en una comunidad Mapuche de la Patagonia semiárida, Argentina

MOLARES, SOLEDAD; LADIO ANA

Traditions and transformations in Ethnobotany

CYTED

Lugar: La Plata; Año: 2010; p. 286 - 290

Environmental and organoleptic criteria used in selection patterns, and the use of medicinal plants in a Mapuche community in the semi-arid Argentine Patagonia. In traditional communities based in arid regions, aromatic and/or flavoured plants play an important role in medical systems. The objectives of this work were: to study richness and consensus in medicinal plants used by a Mapuche community in the Argentine Patagonian steppe; to evaluate informants’ perception of aroma and flavour in these plants, and analyse how the species and their organoleptic features vary according to gathering environments and/or methods by which they are obtained. Free listing and interviews were carried out with 18 inhabitants, and the data analysed by qualitative methods and non-parametric statistics. As a result, 121 species were identified, belonging to 55 botanical families. Of these species, 66% are recognised by their flavour or aromatic characteristics; 78 species being described by their flavour and 52 by aroma. In general, the species most frequently cited in association with the various categories of ailments register the highest level of flavour and/or aroma, indicating the importance of these attributes in species selection. In most gathering environments and also in the case of purchase or barter, more flavoured species are cited than non-flavoured species, whilst only in the High Andean environment, in a purchase/barter situation, are more aromatic species cited than non-aromatic. It is likely that this ecological and organoleptic information functions as an aid to memory and to the transmission of medicinal plant knowledge within the community studied.