Ethno-pharmacological relevance/features of some latin american wild medicinal plants, in ethnopharmacology of wild plants

Abstract

The traditional herbal healers, along with wild medicinal plants and the knowledge they have about them, in certain regions of Latin America, are the prevalent alternatives for some people/communities to cover any primary health care requirements (e.g., treatment to prevent/improve/release pain/symptoms/disorders/diseases). traditional (plant-based) medicine has gained worldwide acceptance because the plants used for this purpose have been apparently efficacious and safe for a long time (decades/centuries), these being some reasons why the WHO created the traditional, complementary and integrative unit. (WHO 2019). Despite this, it is important to remember (i) what “ethnopharmacology” studies are about, which are, shortly, the uses, possible action modes, and bioproperties of plant-based preparations; and (ii) the contribution made by phytochemistry and pharmacology along with other related sciences (botany, pharmacy, microbiology, virology, parasitology, etc.) to find/check any biologically active drugs (molecules/fractions/extracts). In that sense, traditional medicine systems need more evidence-based studies that allow establishing the pharmacological potential together with the validation of therapeutic uses of medicinal plants and its chemical constituents [isolated or mixtures (fractions/extracts)] in such a way that safety and effectiveness are verified, as well as to reveal/understand their preventive and/or therapeutic mechanisms (Mukherjee et al. 2010, Schmidt and Klaser-Cheng 2017).