1,720,956 research outputs found
Acculturation and ethnomedicine: A regional comparison of medicinal plant knowledge among the Zoque of southern Mexico
No full textEthnopharmacological relevance: In rural areas of Mexico the impact of modernization has changed healthcare and health seeking behaviour to varying degrees. This has rarely been accounted for when discussing and comparing medicinal floras. The ethnomedical system of the Zoque has never before been systematically studied. Aim of the study: The objective of this study was to document medical practices and medicinal plant knowledge of the Zoque of Chiapas and Oaxaca, the latter being more strongly affected by acculturation. The medicinal floras are compared in order to detect similarities and differences and establishing links to the cultural transformation. Methods: Research was carried out in a total of nine Zoque municipalities, attempting to adequately represent the cultural and ecological diversity of the Zoque territory. Standard anthropological and ethnobotanical methods were used for data collection. The recorded medicinal uses were classified into 17 disease categories according to emic medical concepts. In each category, the recorded taxa were rank-ordered based on number of use-reports and the informant consensus factor was calculated. The characteristics of the disease categories and the most salient taxa were compared across the two field sites. Results and discussion: A total of 6598 use-reports on 544 species have been collected. With the strongly acculturated Zoque of Oaxaca we have documented a considerably less extensive medicinal flora. The ethnopharmacopoeias of the two Zoque groups share 144 species. These species are of over-proportionate salience, accounting for two-thirds of the total use-reports. In both field sites gastrointestinal disorders are of particular importance, followed by women's diseases, respiratory diseases and musculoskeletal ailments. Children's and spiritual illnesses seem to have lost their importance in Oaxaca, as the underlying concepts are often considered backwards and superstitious. Conclusion: While it is difficult to establish a quantitative causal relation between acculturation and medicinal plant knowledge, in qualitative terms there are clear indicators for the changes acculturation has brought about in the medical system of the Zoque of Oaxaca. The results suggest the development of an increasingly homogenized pan-Mesoamerican medicinal flora
Classifying diseases and remedies in ethnomedicine and ethnopharmacology
Full text linkETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ethnopharmacology focuses on the understanding of local and indigenous use of medicines and therefore an emic approach is inevitable. Often, however, standard biomedical disease classifications are used to describe and analyse local diseases and remedies. Standard classifications might be a valid tool for cross-cultural comparisons and bioprospecting purposes but are not suitable to understand the local perception of disease and use of remedies. Different standard disease classification system exist but their suitability for cross-cultural comparisons of ethnomedical data has never been assessed. Depending on the research focus, (I) ethnomedical, (II) cross-cultural, and (III) bioprospecting, we provide suggestions for the use of specific classification systems.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyse three different standard biomedical classification systems (the International Classification of Diseases (ICD); the Economic Botany Data Collection Standard (EBDCS); and the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC)), and discuss their value for categorizing diseases of ethnomedical systems and their suitability for cross-cultural research in ethnopharmacology. Moreover, based on the biomedical uses of all approved plant derived biomedical drugs, we propose a biomedical therapy-based classification system as a guide for the discovery of drugs from ethnopharmacological sources.
RESULTS: Widely used standards, such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) by the WHO and the Economic Botany Data Collection Standard (EBDCS) are either technically challenging due to a categorization system based on clinical examinations, which are usually not possible during field research (ICD) or lack clear biomedical criteria combining disorders and medical effects in an imprecise and confusing way (EBDCS). The International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC), also accepted by the WHO, has more in common with ethnomedical reality than the ICD or the EBDCS, as the categories are designed according to patient's perceptions and are less influenced by clinical medicine. Since diagnostic tools are not required, medical ethnobotanists and ethnopharmacologists can easily classify reported symptoms and complaints with the ICPC in one of the "chapters" based on 17 body systems, psychological and social problems. Also the biomedical uses of plant-derived drugs are classifiable into 17 broad organ- and therapy-based use-categories but can easily be divided into more specific subcategories.
CONCLUSIONS: Depending on the research focus (I-III) we propose the following classification systems
The taste of heat: How humoral qualities act as a cultural filter for chemosensory properties guiding herbal medicine
Full text linkEthnopharmacological relevance Organoleptic properties, and more specifically chemosensory cues, have been shown to guide therapeutic applications of medicinal plants. Humoral qualities, on the other hand, are widely believed to be an abstract concept, mainly applied post hoc to validate therapy. However, the nexus between humoral qualities, chemosensory properties, and medicinal plant uses has never been systematically assessed. Aim of the study To systematically analyse the correlations between chemosensory properties, humoral qualities, and medicinal uses of selected botanical drugs. Methods The issue was approached experimentally via an organoleptic testing panel, consisting of Zoque healers in Chiapas, Mexico. The healers smelled and tasted 71 selected herbal drugs and subsequently commented on their humoral qualities and therapeutic uses. The resulting dataset is analysed for correlations between these variables using Bayesian statistics. Qualitative data on the characteristics and role of the hot-cold dichotomy complement the quantitative analysis, facilitating meaningful interpretation. Results and discussion The results reproduce and extend the findings of previous studies, which established specific correlations between chemosensory cues and nosological units. The key predictors of drugs’ therapeutic uses, however, are their humoral qualities, which are themselves conditioned by taste and smell. These findings appear to be valid for drug samples known to the participants as well as for unfamiliar samples. Thus, this study establishes the role of the hot-cold dichotomy as an important cultural filter connecting organoleptic properties and therapeutic uses of herbal drugs. Conclusions There is considerable cross-cultural consensus in Mesoamerica for the specific correlations described in this study. Given the continued pervasiveness of the hot-cold dichotomy, humoral qualities and the underlying organoleptic properties ought to be increasingly considered in the design of pharmaceutical products as well as public health strategies. Such culturally appropriate adjustments may considerably improve the perceived quality and effectiveness of healthcare
Medical Ethnobotany with the Zoque People of Southern Mexico and Herbal Neuropsychopharmacology in Mesoamerica
Full text linkMesoamerica (MA) is one of the bioculturally most diverse areas of the world. Research on the neurological activities of mind-altering organic substances from Mexico was fundamental in the emergence of ethnopharmacology as a scientific discipline and provided key insights into the functioning of the human brain. Further, there is historical evidence for a sophisticated medical system in pre-Columbian MA. This notwithstanding, the herbal pharmacopoeia of Mexico contains just 27 native plant species and the information on the herbal drugs used for alleviating mental and neurological disorders has never been systematically reviewed. This thesis thus aims at enhancing the scientific understanding of herbal medicine in MA, focussing on ethnomedical and ethnopharmacological aspects related to the CNS.
Chapter 1 of this thesis describes the results of 13 months of fieldwork with the Zoque of Chiapas and Oaxaca. A total of 544 medicinal plant species have been documented and the ethnomedical systems are compared in the light of the differing degrees of acculturation.
The 2nd chapter deals with the issue of translating culturally-defined (emic) concepts of disease and treatment to scientific (etic) terms, which facilitates the communication and cross-cultural comparison of research results. We present individual recommendations on how to classify diseases, illnesses, and remedies, depending on the research focus – ethnomedical, cross-cultural, or bioprospecting.
Chapter 3 experimentally investigates the correlations between chemosensory properties, humoral qualities, and therapeutic uses of medicinal plants with a Zoque testing panel. Correlations between the drugs’ humoral qualities and the other parameters result particularly significant. Humoral concepts are thus shown to act as an important cultural filter linking the empirically perceived presence of secondary metabolites in plants to their disease-specific application. The findings have implications for culturally appropriate drug development and healthcare strategies.
Chapter 4 aims at reconstructing the development and diffusion of medicinal plant knowledge in MA. A database was compiled containing 2188 botanical taxa used medicinally by the five linguistic groups most closely associated with major civilizatory periods in MA. Linguistic analysis indicates that especially Mayan and Mixe-Zoquean cultural groups were instrumental in developing and diffusing herbal medicine in MA. Given a relatively coherent set of health beliefs and a large number of shared medicinal taxa, Mesoamerican Traditional Medicine merits enhanced recognition from both researchers and legislators.
Chapter 5 presents an overview of the 1324 botanical species used in MA for illnesses and diseases with a pronounced association with the nervous system. The neuropsychopharmacological data available on 308 species from the 58 cross-culturally most salient genera are systematically reviewed. Further, the most frequently reported mental and psychosomatic folk illnesses are described. The quantitative nature of this review facilitates the prioritization of taxa for future research and establishes a much-needed framework of evidence for practitioners and legislators.
In Chapter 6 we experimentally investigate the activities of three flavones (acacetin, diosmetin, and luteolin) from the herbal drug Agastache mexicana on mice in the elevated plus-maze. All three flavone aglycones showed significant anxiolytic-like effects. The combined treatment with all three flavones resulted in an enhanced anxiolytic effect similar to diazepam. While the difference between individual and combined flavone treatment is not statistically significant, the results suggest a synergistic interaction between the flavonoids present in A. mexicana. Studies on human subjects are recommended in order to provide a more reliable evidence-base to users of this herbal drug
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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