From local food to global dietary supplements: edible plant products sold as adaptogens in

POCHETTINO, MARIA LELIA; ARENAS, PATRICIA; PUENTES, JEREMIAS; HURRELL, JULIO

MONTPELLIER

Congreso; 13TH CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ETHNOBIOLOGY; 2012

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ETHNOBIOLOGY

This contribution includes the results of a study within the frame of Urban Ethnobotany developed in the Laboratorio de Etnobotánica y Botánica Aplicada (LEBA), Facultad de Ciencias Naturalesy Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, concerning several dietary supplements that are marketed IN the main conurbation of Argentina, that includes the contiguous urban agglomerations surrounding Buenos Aires, the capital city of the country (Greater Buenos Aires), and La Plata, the capital city of the province of Buenos Aires (Greater La Plata). This paper deals with three species that are major food or functional foods in their area of origin, and their products are commercialized as adaptogens (in its broad sense): Lepidium meyenii Brassicaceae) - "maca"-, Plukenetia volubilis (Euphorbiaceae) - "sacha inchi"-, both of Andean origin, and Morinda citrifolia (Rubiaceae) - "noni"-, succesfully introduced in several American countries in the last half of XXth century. The data were recorded by means of ethnobotanical qualitative techniques (participant observation, open-ended and semistructured interviews) applied in immigrants´ traditional markets, health stores (locally called "dietéticas") and other shops of the general commercial circuit. The traditional uses of these species, their access routes,marketing and diffusion as dietary supplements in urban pluricultural context are presented, as well as current modes of use and related knowledge which are part of local botanical knowledge. Thus, modifications in the uses originally assigned as result of the expansion of the products in the context of globalization are evaluated, in addition to the consequent changes in traditional patterns of knowledge,beliefs and practices related to these plant resources. This particular approach help to understand the complexity and dynamics of the botanical knowledge of the urban area studied.