Book Review, ''La colonisation du savoir. Une histoire des plantes médicinales du Nouveau Monde (1492-1750)'' (original) (raw)
Related papers
Creating time capsules for colonial botanical drugs in the early modern Low Countries
2015
DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:
The history of the introduction of exotic therapeutic drugs in early modern Europe is usually rife with legend and obscurity and Peruvian bark is a case in point. The famous antimalarial drug entered the European medical market around 1640, yet it took decades before the bark was firmly established in pharmaceutical practice. This article argues that the history of Peruvian bark can only be understood as the interplay of its trajectories in science, commerce, and society. Modern research has mostly focused on the first of these, largely due to the abundance of medico-historical data. While appreciating these findings, this article proposes to integrate the medical trajectory in a richer narrative , by drawing particular attention to the acculturation of the bark in commerce and society. Although the evidence we have for these two trajectories is still sketchy and disproportionate , it can nevertheless help us to make sense of sources that have not yet been an obvious focus of research. Starting from an apparently isolated occurrence of the drug in a letter, this article focuses on Paris as the location where medical and public appreciation of the bark took shape, by exploring several contexts of knowledge circulation and medical practice there. These contexts provide a new window on the early circulation of knowledge of the bark, at a time when its eventual acceptance was by no means certain.
Folk informants on medicinal plants and…
Objectives: to identify the folk informants and characterize the therapeutic practices in health care through medicinal plants. Method: this is a qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory study. The subjects were 3 female farmers indicated as great connoisseurs of medicinal plants in a rural community in a town in the South Brazilian region. Data collection took place in July and August 2011, by using a semi-structured interview (recorded), systematically observing and photographing medicinal plants, preparing a genogram and an eco-map of families, and georeferencing the interviews' location. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Medicine of Universidade Federal Pelotas, under the Opinion 072/2007. Results: the women interviewed showed a great knowledge on the theme, citing 116 medicinal plants used in health care, and this knowledge was mainly acquired in the family environment. Conclusion: information reinforces the need that the nurse works from the integral care perspective, respecting the differences and the social context of people. Descriptors: Medicinal Plants; Rural Health; Nursing. RESUMO Objetivos: identificar os informantes folk e caracterizar as práticas terapêuticas no cuidado à saúde por meio de plantas medicinais. Método: trata-se de estudo qualitativo, descritivo e exploratório. Os sujeitos foram 3 agricultoras indicadas como grandes conhecedoras de plantas medicinais em uma comunidade rural de um município da região Sul do Brasil. A coleta de dados ocorreu em julho e agosto de 2011, com utilização de entrevista semiestruturada (gravada), observação sistemática e fotografia das plantas medicinais, elaboração de genograma e ecomapa das famílias e o georreferenciamento dos locais das entrevistas. O estudo foi aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal de Pelotas, sob o Parecer n. 072/2007. Resultados: as entrevistadas apresentaram grande conhecimento sobre o tema, citando 116 plantas medicinais utilizadas no cuidado à saúde, e esse saber foi adquirido, principalmente, no ambiente familiar. Conclusão: as informações reforçam a necessidade de o enfermeiro trabalhar sob a perspectiva do cuidado integral, respeitando as diferenças e o contexto social das pessoas. Descritores: Plantas Medicinais; Saúde da População Rural; Enfermagem.
Mobilising Medicine: Trade & Healing in the Early Modern Atlantic World, a special issue of the journal Social History of Medicine; Harold J. Cook and Timothy D. Walker, eds., 2013
Portuguese colonial exploration and settlement in Brazil during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries included a significant, though to date largely underappreciated, dimension of medical inquiry, the impact of which resonated throughout the Atlantic scientific world and beyond. This paper examines the role and influence within Portugal's maritime dominions of medical techniques, remedies and specific drugs originating in colonial Brazil. It focuses attention on the earliest collaborative interaction between indigenous healers and Portuguese missionaries-mainly Jesuits-on the Brazilian colonial frontier, who then passed that knowledge on to European physicians, surgeons and pharmacists working in colonial South American medical facilities. In such institutions, indigenous techniques were most often employed to the edification of Portuguese colonial agents (missionaries, colonial administrative officials, maritime commanders and state-licensed medical practitioners), who would then become the conduits disseminating those techniques to Europe or other colonial locations.
Medical plants: from Colonial Brazil to their indication by the National Single Health System – SHS
AI Publication, 2019
Traditional knowledge of medicinal plants contextualizes the history of humanity. Thus, this research aims to analyze the use of medicinal plants in Brazil, addressing the historical aspects, the regulatory framework, and the prospects of proof and indication by SHS. Human kind has always used medicinal plants, described 60,000 years ago B.C. and 5,000 years ago B.C. by Chinese medicine. In Brazil, due to the wide biological diversity of fauna, flora, and traditional communities, it is a historical representation of human interaction with ecosystems. Some naturalists who have traveled throughout Brazil during the Colonial and Imperial periods, resulting in works such as Natural History of Brazil and Nature, Diseases, Medicine and Remedies of Brazilian Indians, have described the reports on the use of plants. The field diaries and drawings produced by the travelers were essential for the development of research. Only in the twentieth century it was possible to perform more complex pharmacological tests, and the regulatory framework governing the production, use, and regularization of medicinal plants was subsequently approved, as well as in the National Program of Medicinal Plants and Phytotherapies, phytotherapeutic drugs were inserted into the treatment of diseases of the Single Health System. The interculturation of traditional knowledge by the different cultures that make up Brazil is a unique factor in the dissemination of phytotherapy present in the national floristic diversity.
Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2022
Information on the use of medicinal plants in the daily life by Paraguayan people is scarce in mainstream scientific literature. The study on the Paraguayan diaspora in the Provincia de Misiones, Argentina, gives an insight into Guaraní traditions, colonial legacy and current search for new medicinal plants to address new health challenges. Aim of the study: To document the use of medicinal plants by Paraguayan mestizo migrants who moved into a new country, yet within the same ecological region. The present and past uses of medicinal plants were compared to understand the continuity and change in the Paraguayan herbal pharmacopoeia. Materials and methods: Fieldwork based on ethnographic and ethnobotanical techniques was carried out in the Provincia de Misiones, Argentina, in 2014, 2015, and 2019. Eighty-five Paraguayan migrants and their descendants from eastern Paraguay took part in the study. The list of recorded plants was compared with the information in historical sources from Paraguay, to examine the continuity and changes in Paraguayan herbal medicine, and with the present-day ethnobotanical studies from Paraguay. Ethnopharmacological and phytochemical studies on the medicinal plants with the highest consensus of uses were reviewed. Results: Altogether, 204 medicinal plant species were recorded. The most frequently mentioned species represented a combination of plants native to the New and Old World. Nearly 40% of the present-day Paraguayan pharmacopoeia shows continuity from colonial and post-colonial periods. Plants were used for 19 medical categories, of which digestive, circulatory and those belonging to humoral medicine were the most prevalent. The ongoing search of plants to treat new health problems is illustrated by reports of 40 species used for hypertension, 26 for diabetes and 18 to lower cholesterol. There is still little evidence for the effectiveness of these plants in the pharmacological literature. Paraguayan migrants were able to continue their traditional plant medicine in Misiones, Argentina, in a substantial way. Conclusion: This study was carried out in a geographic area with a long-standing tradition of Guaraní medicine. Paraguayan migrants in Misiones integrate pre-Hispanic Guaraní names and uses of plants and old humoral concepts with current adaptation of plants to meet new health challenges. Several of the uses described in early colonial times are still practiced, giving a solid background for in-depth studies of the local pharmacopoeia.