- Email: [email protected]
Zootherapeutic practices in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, México
Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138 (2011) 233–237
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Journal of Ethnopharmacology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jethpharm
Zootherapeutic practices in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, México Angel Josabad Alonso-Castro a , Candy Carranza-Álvarez b,∗ , Juan José Maldonado-Miranda c , María del Rosario Jacobo-Salcedo d , Diana Alicia Quezada-Rivera e , Habacuc Lorenzo-Márquez f , f ˜ Luis Alejandro Figueroa-Zúniga , Carlos Fernández-Galicia f , Néstor Abel Ríos-Reyes f , f Miguel Ángel de León-Rubio , Valentina Rodríguez-Gallegos f , Pedro Medellín-Milán b a
Facultad de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, D.F., Mexico Agenda Ambiental de la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico c División de Estudios de Posgrado, Facultad de Contaduría y Administración, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico d Unidad Regional Universitaria de Zonas Áridas, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Bermejillo, Durango, Mexico e Laboratorio Central de la Reserva de la Biosfera de Mapimí, Mapimí, Durango, Mexico f Unidad Académica Multidisciplinaria de la Zona Huasteca, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí, Mexico b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 7 June 2011 Received in revised form 9 September 2011 Accepted 16 September 2011 Available online 21 September 2011 Keywords: Medicinal fauna Relative importance Informant consensus factor Ethnopharmacological field study Traditional medicine
a b s t r a c t Ethnopharmacological importance: Animal derived products have been a source of medicinal compounds since ancient times. This work documents the use of animal species in traditional medicine in the municipality of Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, México. Materials and methods: Direct interviews were performed with inhabitants from Aquismón. The interviews were analyzed with two quantitative tools: (a) the informant consensus (ICF) that estimates the level of agreement about which animals may be used for each category and (b) the relative importance (RI) that determines the extent of potential utilization of each species. Results: A total of 24 animal species used for medicinal purposes, belonging to 22 families and 4 taxonomic categories, were reported by interviewees. Nine medicinal species had not been reported in scientific literature. The results of the IFC showed that diseases of the respiratory systems had the greatest agreement. The most versatile species according to their RI are Crotalus atrox and Mephitis macroura. Conclusion: Further studies with medicinal fauna from Aquismón are required for the experimental validation of their traditional uses, especially with Mephitis macroura and Crotalus atrox. © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The use of animals with medicinal properties is a common practice worldwide. In China, more than 1500 animals are used as medicine; in India 15–20% of the Ayurvedic medicine is based on animal-derived substances, whereas in Latin America 584 medicinal animal species have been recorded (Alves and Rosa, 2005; Alves and Alves, 2011). In México over 100 animals have been described for medicinal purposes (Hernández, 1959; De la Cruz, 1991; Cupul˜ 2003; Enriquez-Vazquez et al., 2006; Corona-Martinez, Magana, 2008; Monroy-Vilchis et al., 2008; Ramos-ElorduyBlasquez et al., 2009; Jacobo-Salcedo et al., 2011), however, there are few reports about medicinal fauna in México.
∗ Corresponding author at: Avenida Manuel Nava 201 tercer piso, Zona Universitaria, San Luís Potosí, San Luís Potosí 78210, Mexico. Tel.: +52 444 8262439; fax: +52 444 8118809. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (C. Carranza-Álvarez). 0378-8741/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2011.09.020
According to the ancient Mexicans, illnesses were caused by evil spirits, witchcraft and magic, and the priest used medicinal plants and animals to heal the sick (Gallardo-Arias, 2004). At the arrival of the Spaniard to Mexico, many of the manuscripts of traditional knowledge were burned. Libellus de Medicinalibus, a manuscript completed in 1552, refers to the healing effects of autochthonous minerals, plants and animals, and mentions the use of more than 80 animals for medicinal purposes (De la Cruz, 1991). The municipality of Aquismón (San Luis Potosi, Mexico) is part of the region called Huasteca Potosina, located in the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico, and includes 26 from the 58 municipalities of the state of San Luis Potosí. Some surveys regarding the medicinal flora in the Huasteca Potosina have been carried out (Bye, 1979; Domínguez and Alcorn, 1985), using qualitative tools. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to zootherapeutic practices in this region. This work describes, for the first time, the results of an ethnopharmacological survey about the medicinal use of several animal species used by inhabitants from Aquismón, San Luís Potosí, México.
234
A.J. Alonso-Castro et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138 (2011) 233–237
Fig. 1. Map of the study area, municipality of Aquismón, San Luís Potosí, México.
2. Materials and methods 2.1. Study site The municipality of Aquismón is located at 21◦ 37 north latitude and 99◦ 01 west longitude in the southeastern portion of the state of San Luis Potosi (Fig. 1). The autochthonous language is Teenek. The name of Aquismón means “tree at the bottom of a well”. The weather is warm with an annual mean temperature of 24.7 ◦ C and an annual mean rain precipitation of 1975.3 mm (CEDAM, 2006). The predominant vegetation is tropical forest and the main economical activities are agriculture and animal breeding. Main crops are coffee cherry, sugar cane and corn, whereas the main animals used for livestock are cows, chickens and porks (CEDAM, 2006). Aquismón consists of 184 towns, of which 156 have less than 500 inhabitants, encompasses an area of 785.9 km2 , and has a total population of 45,074 inhabitants of whom 50% belong to the ethnic group Teenek. 2.2. Data collection Direct interviews with general population from Aquismón and Tancuime, towns of Aquismón, were performed from August 2010 to April 2011. A total of 148 inhabitants, 60 men and 88 women, in an age group between 15 and 80 years, were interviewed individually. Before beginning the interviews, the consent was obtained to reveal the information. Interviews were conducted through a semistructured questionnaire. The questions were about the common and local name of the animal used, medicinal use of animal species, preparation, and the body parts used. Specimens were identified with the aid of specialists through (i) photographs or (ii) datasheet of specimens, and were deposited at Centro de Investigación de la Reserva de la Biósfera de Mapimí. Scientific names were updated in accordance with the Integrated Taxonomic Information System’s “Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist” (ITIS, 2008). 2.3. Data analysis The diseases treated with medicinal fauna from Aquismón were grouped into 11 categories based on the classification used by the
International Classification of Diseases used by the World Health Organization (ICD, 2007). The relative importance (RI) of the species cited was calculated (adapted from Bennett and Prance, 2000) according to the following formula: RI = NCS + NP,
NCS =
NCSS , NSCSV
NP =
NPS NPSV
NCS is the number of body systems, which is obtained dividing NCSS, the number of body systems treated by a given species, by NSCSV, the total number of body systems treated by the most versatile species. NP is the number of pharmacological properties, which is obtained by dividing NPS, the number of properties attributed to a species, by NPSV, the total number of properties attributed to the most versatile species. The result can have a maximum value of 2, indicating the most versatile species. The informant consensus factor (ICF), adapted by Heinrich et al. (1998), estimates the level of agreement between interviewees about which animals to use for each category, and was calculated as follows: ICF =
nur − nt nur − 1
where nur is the number of citations of the animal in each category and nt is the number of citations of the uses given to the animal in each category. The result of this factor ranges from 0 to 1, where a value close to 1 indicates a well-defined selection criterion in the community and/or if that information is exchanged between informants, whereas a low value indicates that animal species are chosen randomly, or that informants do not exchange information about their use. 3. Results 3.1. Use of medicinal fauna A total of 24 animal species with medicinal purposes, belonging to 22 families and 4 taxonomic categories, were reported by interviewees. The animal species include insects (2), reptiles (7), birds (4) and mammals (11) and are used for treating a total of 30 illnesses
A.J. Alonso-Castro et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138 (2011) 233–237
235
Table 1 Animal species for medicinal purposes in Aquismón, San Luís Potosí, México. Scientific name Family Birds Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) Cathartidae Columba livia (Gmelin, 1789) Columbidae Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) Icteridae Gallus gallus (Linnaeus, 1758) Phasianidae Insects Apis mellifera (Linnaeus, 1758) Apidae Centruroides elegans (Thorell, 1876) Buthidae Mammals Canis latrans (Say, 1823) Canidae Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmerman, 1780) Cervidae Procyon lotor (Linnaeus, 1758) Procyonidae Didelphis virginiana (Allen, 1900) Didelphidae
Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus, 1758) Leporidae Sus scrofa (Linnaeus, 1758) Suidae Lynx rufus (Schreber, 1777) Felidae Mephitis macroura (Lichtenstein, 1832) Mephitidae
Common name [Teenek name] Voucher
Part used
Application
Disease
Aura [toˇıt] TN-SL-215 Young pigeon [tsittsin] PC-SL-813 Mexican thrush [Tsˇıok] ZP-SL-687 Hen [kwita’] GL-SL-846
Meat
Cooked
Epilepsy
8
0.27
Meat
Soup Soup
Infertility Diabetes
10
0.53
Meat
Soup
Cough
25
0.27
Fat Egg
Fat Rubbed
Otic infection Evil eye
4
0.53
Sting
Bite
Arthritis
10
0.27
Whole animal
Mixed with alcohol and rubbed
Arthritis
11
0.27
Fat Ointment
Soup Rubbed
Anemia, pain Cough
Fat Horn
Rubbed Macerated and rubbed
Fever, pain, inflammatory Pain, headache
Raccoon [edhém] MP-SL-568 Tlacuache [ut] TL-SL-314
Meat
Cooked
Backache, stomachache
Meat Meat Fat Bones
Soup Cooked Rubbed Water infusion
Rabbit [koy] CN-SL-474
Kidney
Pig [olom] CD-SL-123 Bobcat [padhum] GM-SL-633 Skunk [cashing út] ZR-SL-149
Bee [bàsgîi] AB-SL-159 Scorpion [dhiní] AC-SL-458
Coyote [chuch] CY-SL-612 Deer [Itsamal] VN-SL-369
Number of mentions
3
Relative importance
0.8
46
0.57
9
0.53
27
1.43
Cooked
Skin infection, heart attack Epilepsy Allergies, dermatitis Cough Stomachache
9
0.27
Kidney
Cooked
Ear pain, angina
25
0.53
Fat
Ointment
Arthritis
16
0.27
Fur Meat Fat Bones
Maceration in alcohol and rubbed Cooked Rubbed ointment Maceration
To keep away from bad spirits, hypertension Diabetes, cancer, inflammation Cough, bronchitis, dermatitis, asthma, wounds Cough Arthritis, cough, dermatitis, allergies, varicose veins Wounds, pain Inflammation
97
2.0
53
1.70
3
0.27
42
1.53
Taxidea taxus (Schreber, 1777) Mustelidae
Badger [besheˇı] TJ-SL-299
Fat Meat
Ointment Soup
Ammospermophilus interpres (Merriam, 1890) Sciuridae Dasypus novemcinctus (Linnaeus, 1758) Dasypodidae
Squirrel [ekˇıdhaˇı] AR-SL-369
Meat
Soup
Armadillo [Batˇıan] AR-SL-289
Fat Meat
Rubbed Cooked
Dermatitis, Inflammation, asthma, pain, Cough, wounds, tuberculosis
236
A.J. Alonso-Castro et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138 (2011) 233–237
Table 1 (Continued) Scientific name Family Reptiles Iguana iguana (Linnaeus, 1758) Iguanidae Trachemys scripta cataspila (Günther, 1885) Emydidae Crocodylus moreletii (Duméril & Bibron, 1851) Crocodylidae Crotalus atrox (Linnaeus, 1758) Viperidae
Hyla cinerea (Schneider, 1799) Hylidae Bothrops asper (Garman, 1883) Viperidae Hyla arenicolor (Cope, 1866) Hylidae
Common name [Teenek name] Voucher
Part used
Application
Disease
Number of mentions
Relative importance
Iguana [Tsalich] IG-SL-744 Tortoise [Pet] TG-SL-361
Meat Skin
Cooked Rubbed
Allergies Pain, fractures
35
0.63
Meat
Soup
Bronchitis, cough
13
0.37
Crocodile [ajin] CD-SL-901
Meat
Cooked
Pain
3
0.27
Rattlesnake [Kuechtli] SP-SL-166
Fat Meat Skin
Rubbed ointment Soup Rubbed
75
2.0
Toad [Kwa] SA-SL-933
Skin Whole animal
Rubbed rubbed
Cough, dermatitis, allergy, arthritis, grains, pain, rheumatism Anemia, cancer Skin infection Allergy, dermatitis Erysipelas, evil eye
12
0.9
Snake 4 noses [Tsedham] SC-SL-458 Frog [kˇıw] RA-SL-766
Meat Meat
Soup Macerated in alcohol and rubbed Macerated in oil and rubbed
Headache Wounds
17
0.53
Skin infections
18
0.27
Skin
and 2 cultural filiations (Table 1). All medicinal species have a name in Teenek and Spanish (Table 1). Nine animals with medicinal properties had not been reported previously, and these include 1 bird (Quiscalus mexicanus), 1 insect (Centruroides elegans), 3 mammals (Procyon lotor, Oryctolagus cuniculus, Lynx rufus) and 4 reptiles (Hyla arenicolor, Bothrops asper, Hyla cinerea, Trachemys scripta cataspila). Fauna such as Gallus gallus, Mephitis macroura and Hyla cinerea are used for magical purposes (Table 1). For instance, skunk tail is used as an amulet to defend people from evil spirits. Medicinal animals are prescribed as single drug or in combination with various medicinal plants. For instance, tlacuache bone powder is mixed with Echium vulgare for the treatment of cough. Furthermore, skunk bone powder is mixed with Bougainvillea glabra, Eucalyptus globosus and Persea americana for the treatment of cough. None of the medicinal fauna mentioned by the informants are endangered species. About 63% of medicinal animals are used to heal a disease and most folk remedies are administrated in the form of soups and ointments. The animal-derived products used are whole animal, meat, fat, bones, horns, egg, sting, kidney, fur and skin, and meat was the most cited product (Table 1). Products of skunk and rattlesnake are used to treat 10 illnesses each. Even with the presence of clinics in all communities, 100% of the interviewed people have used medicinal animals as an alternative therapy for many types of diseases. The lack of economical resources and the existence of traditional knowledge are the main reasons to use medicinal fauna. The most commonly mentioned species were Mephitis macroura – skunk (n = 97), Crotalus atrox – rattlesnake (n = 75), Taxidea taxus – badger (n = 53), Odocoileus virginianus – deer (n = 46). 3.2. Relative importance Five animals were found to be highly versatile in terms of their uses: Mephitis macroura (RI = 2.0), Crotalus atrox (RI = 2.0), Taxidea taxus (RI = 1.70), Dasypus novemcinctus (RI = 1.53) and Didelphis virginiana (RI = 1.43) (Table 1).
Table 2 Informant consensus factor. Category Certain infectious and parasitic diseases Diseases of the circulatory system Diseases of the digestive system Diseases of the ear and mastoid process Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue Diseases of the nervous system Diseases of the respiratory system Diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissues Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases Injuries, poisoning and other consequences of external causes Undefined illnesses
Taxons
Uses
ICF
5
2
0.75
7 13 10 82
3 2 2 7
0.67 0.92 0.89 0.93
11 161 83
2 9 7
0.9 0.95 0.93
24
4
0.87
31
5
0.87
145
14
0.9
3.3. Informant consensus factor The results showed that diseases of the respiratory system (ICF = 0.95), diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (ICF = 0.93), diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissues (ICF = 0.93), and diseases of the digestive system (ICF = 0.92) had the highest ICF values (Table 2). 4. Discussion Animal-based remedies play an important role in health care in Mexico. However, there are limited studies regarding this topic in México. This study includes 9 medicinal animals that had not been reported in scientific literature, provides new information for the Mexican traditional medicine and demonstrates the importance of local biodiversity. The prescription of medicinal fauna in Aquismón is done by local healers called “chamanes”, which receive the knowledge for
A.J. Alonso-Castro et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138 (2011) 233–237
healing by: (a) self-knowledge, (b) through dreams, or (c) taught by spirits (Gallardo-Arias, 2004). In this study, 92% of animal species are wild caught. This finding indicates that hunting reduces the acquisition costs of zootherapy. Similar results have been described in traditional medicines from Latin American (Alves and Alves, 2011). The results indicated that 63% of animal species are used to cure more than one illness. This trend is common practice in traditional medicines from Mexico and Latin American (Enriquez-Vazquez et al., 2006; Alves and Alves, 2011; Jacobo-Salcedo et al., 2011). The findings showed that the main ailments treated by medicinal fauna in Aquismón are diseases of the respiratory and skin systems, and there is also a consensus about the animals to treat these ailments. This might be because these illnesses are not considered of great severity. Previously, we showed that the dermatological, diabetes and reproductive categories had the greatest agreement in Mapimi, Durango (Northern México) (Jacobo-Salcedo et al., 2011). On the other hand, Enriquez-Vazquez et al. (2006) showed that medicinal fauna from Los Altos, Chiapas (Southern México) was used mainly for treating pain/fever followed by respiratory and dermatological illnesses. In this study, two medicinal animals are combined with medicinal plants for the treatment of respiratory diseases. This trend was also described in the Brazilian traditional medicine (Alves and Alves, 2011). In our previous report, Crotalus atrox – rattlesnake was the medicinal species with more citations, followed by Mephitis macroura – skunk (Jacobo-Salcedo et al., 2011). In this study, skunk was the most cited animal species, followed by rattlesnake. These results indicate that these two animal species play an important role in Mexican traditional medicine. Furthermore, these both animals have been used for the empirical treatment of several diseases in México since pre-Hispanic times (Hernández, 1959). Some of the animals recorded in this study are also used in popular medicine in other countries. In Brazilian traditional medicine, Gallus gallus fat is used for the treatment of flu, bronchitis and cough, whereas Catharteus aura liver is used for alcoholism and asthma. The bite of Apis mellifera is used for rheumatism whereas the fat of Iguana iguana and Sus scrofa fat is used for wounds (CostaNeto, 2011). In Nepal, the bite of Apis spp. is used to cure heart problems and Gallus gallus fat is used for the treatment of sprains and strains (Lohani, 2010). In summary, this study demonstrates that animal species play an important role in healing practices among inhabitants from Aquismón. In addition, the conservation of animal species needs to be considered to preserve the local medicinal knowledge. Further studies with medicinal fauna from Aquismón are required for the experimental validation of their traditional uses, especially with Mephitis macroura and Crotalus atrox.
237
Acknowledgements AJAC (174493), MdRJS (383083) and JJMM (253233) were endowed with graduate fellowships from CONACYT. Thanks to Dr. Jose Antonio Avalos-Lozano for providing the map. We wish to express our gratitude to Ana Perez Soriano for English edition. References Alves, R.R., Rosa, I.L., 2005. Why study the use of animal products in traditional medicines? Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 1, 5–9. Alves, R.R., Alves, H.N., 2011. The faunal drugstore: animal based remedies used in traditional medicines in Latin America. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 7, 9–52. Bennett, B.C., Prance, G.T., 2000. Introduced plants in the indigenous pharmacopoeia of Northern South America. Economic Botany 54, 90–102. Bye, R.A., 1979. An 1878 ethnobotanical collection from San Luis Potosi: Dr Edward Palmer’s first major Mexican collection. Economic Botany 33, 135–162. Coordinación Estatal para el Desarrollo Municipal (CEDAM), 2006. (accessed 03.01.11.). Corona-Martinez, E., 2008. Las aves como recurso curativo y sus posibles evidencias en la arqueozoología. Archaebios 2, 11–18. Costa-Neto, E.M., 2011. The popular zootherapy in Bahia State: registration of new animal species used as medicinal resources. Ciência and Saúde coletiva 16, 1639–1650. ˜ F.G., 2003. Cocodrilo: medicina para el alma y el cuerpo. Revista de Cupul-Magana, Biomedicina 14, 45–48. De la Cruz, M., (Juan Badiano, Trans.) 1991. Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, Aztec Manuscript (1552). Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, p. 398. Domínguez, X.A., Alcorn, J.B., 1985. Screening of medicinal plants used by Huastec Mayans of northeastern Mexico. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 13, 139–156. ˜ Enriquez-Vazquez, P., Mariaca-Mendez, R., Retana-Guiascon, O.G., Naranjo-Pinera, E.J., 2006. Uso medicinal de la fauna silvestre en los Altos de Chiapas, México. Interciencia 31, 491–499. Gallardo-Arias, P., 2004. Los especialistas de la curación. Curanderos teenek y nahuas de Aquismón. Anales de Antropología 38, 179–200. Heinrich, M., Ankli, A., Frei, B., Wiemann, C., Sticher, O., 1998. Medicinal plants in Mexico: healer’s consensus and cultural importance. Social Science and Medicine 47, 1859–1871. ˜ Universidad Nacional Hernández, F., 1959. Historia natural de Nueva Espana. Autónoma de México, 530 pp. ICD – International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (World Health Organization), 2007. 10th Revision. 2007. (accessed (accessed 04.5.2011.). Jacobo-Salcedo, M.R., Alonso-Castro, A.J., Zarate-Martinez, A., 2011. Folk medicinal use of fauna in Mapimi, Durango, México. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 133, 902–906. Lohani, U., 2010. Man-animal relationships in Central Nepal. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 6, 31. Monroy-Vilchis, O., Cabrera, L., Suárez, P., Zarco-González, M.M., Rodríguez-Soto, C., Urios, V., 2008. Uso tradicional de vertebrados silvestres en la SierraNanchititla, México. Interciencia 33, 308–313. Ramos-ElorduyBlasquez, J., Costa-Neto, E.M., Landero-Torres, I., 2009. Comparación de especies de abejas comestibles en la Sierra de Jibóia (Bahia, Brasil) y Sierra de Zongolica (Veracruz, México). Revista Colombiana de Entomología 35, 217–223.
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Journal of Ethnopharmacology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jethpharm
Zootherapeutic practices in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, México Angel Josabad Alonso-Castro a , Candy Carranza-Álvarez b,∗ , Juan José Maldonado-Miranda c , María del Rosario Jacobo-Salcedo d , Diana Alicia Quezada-Rivera e , Habacuc Lorenzo-Márquez f , f ˜ Luis Alejandro Figueroa-Zúniga , Carlos Fernández-Galicia f , Néstor Abel Ríos-Reyes f , f Miguel Ángel de León-Rubio , Valentina Rodríguez-Gallegos f , Pedro Medellín-Milán b a
Facultad de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, D.F., Mexico Agenda Ambiental de la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico c División de Estudios de Posgrado, Facultad de Contaduría y Administración, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico d Unidad Regional Universitaria de Zonas Áridas, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Bermejillo, Durango, Mexico e Laboratorio Central de la Reserva de la Biosfera de Mapimí, Mapimí, Durango, Mexico f Unidad Académica Multidisciplinaria de la Zona Huasteca, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí, Mexico b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 7 June 2011 Received in revised form 9 September 2011 Accepted 16 September 2011 Available online 21 September 2011 Keywords: Medicinal fauna Relative importance Informant consensus factor Ethnopharmacological field study Traditional medicine
a b s t r a c t Ethnopharmacological importance: Animal derived products have been a source of medicinal compounds since ancient times. This work documents the use of animal species in traditional medicine in the municipality of Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, México. Materials and methods: Direct interviews were performed with inhabitants from Aquismón. The interviews were analyzed with two quantitative tools: (a) the informant consensus (ICF) that estimates the level of agreement about which animals may be used for each category and (b) the relative importance (RI) that determines the extent of potential utilization of each species. Results: A total of 24 animal species used for medicinal purposes, belonging to 22 families and 4 taxonomic categories, were reported by interviewees. Nine medicinal species had not been reported in scientific literature. The results of the IFC showed that diseases of the respiratory systems had the greatest agreement. The most versatile species according to their RI are Crotalus atrox and Mephitis macroura. Conclusion: Further studies with medicinal fauna from Aquismón are required for the experimental validation of their traditional uses, especially with Mephitis macroura and Crotalus atrox. © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The use of animals with medicinal properties is a common practice worldwide. In China, more than 1500 animals are used as medicine; in India 15–20% of the Ayurvedic medicine is based on animal-derived substances, whereas in Latin America 584 medicinal animal species have been recorded (Alves and Rosa, 2005; Alves and Alves, 2011). In México over 100 animals have been described for medicinal purposes (Hernández, 1959; De la Cruz, 1991; Cupul˜ 2003; Enriquez-Vazquez et al., 2006; Corona-Martinez, Magana, 2008; Monroy-Vilchis et al., 2008; Ramos-ElorduyBlasquez et al., 2009; Jacobo-Salcedo et al., 2011), however, there are few reports about medicinal fauna in México.
∗ Corresponding author at: Avenida Manuel Nava 201 tercer piso, Zona Universitaria, San Luís Potosí, San Luís Potosí 78210, Mexico. Tel.: +52 444 8262439; fax: +52 444 8118809. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (C. Carranza-Álvarez). 0378-8741/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2011.09.020
According to the ancient Mexicans, illnesses were caused by evil spirits, witchcraft and magic, and the priest used medicinal plants and animals to heal the sick (Gallardo-Arias, 2004). At the arrival of the Spaniard to Mexico, many of the manuscripts of traditional knowledge were burned. Libellus de Medicinalibus, a manuscript completed in 1552, refers to the healing effects of autochthonous minerals, plants and animals, and mentions the use of more than 80 animals for medicinal purposes (De la Cruz, 1991). The municipality of Aquismón (San Luis Potosi, Mexico) is part of the region called Huasteca Potosina, located in the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico, and includes 26 from the 58 municipalities of the state of San Luis Potosí. Some surveys regarding the medicinal flora in the Huasteca Potosina have been carried out (Bye, 1979; Domínguez and Alcorn, 1985), using qualitative tools. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to zootherapeutic practices in this region. This work describes, for the first time, the results of an ethnopharmacological survey about the medicinal use of several animal species used by inhabitants from Aquismón, San Luís Potosí, México.
234
A.J. Alonso-Castro et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138 (2011) 233–237
Fig. 1. Map of the study area, municipality of Aquismón, San Luís Potosí, México.
2. Materials and methods 2.1. Study site The municipality of Aquismón is located at 21◦ 37 north latitude and 99◦ 01 west longitude in the southeastern portion of the state of San Luis Potosi (Fig. 1). The autochthonous language is Teenek. The name of Aquismón means “tree at the bottom of a well”. The weather is warm with an annual mean temperature of 24.7 ◦ C and an annual mean rain precipitation of 1975.3 mm (CEDAM, 2006). The predominant vegetation is tropical forest and the main economical activities are agriculture and animal breeding. Main crops are coffee cherry, sugar cane and corn, whereas the main animals used for livestock are cows, chickens and porks (CEDAM, 2006). Aquismón consists of 184 towns, of which 156 have less than 500 inhabitants, encompasses an area of 785.9 km2 , and has a total population of 45,074 inhabitants of whom 50% belong to the ethnic group Teenek. 2.2. Data collection Direct interviews with general population from Aquismón and Tancuime, towns of Aquismón, were performed from August 2010 to April 2011. A total of 148 inhabitants, 60 men and 88 women, in an age group between 15 and 80 years, were interviewed individually. Before beginning the interviews, the consent was obtained to reveal the information. Interviews were conducted through a semistructured questionnaire. The questions were about the common and local name of the animal used, medicinal use of animal species, preparation, and the body parts used. Specimens were identified with the aid of specialists through (i) photographs or (ii) datasheet of specimens, and were deposited at Centro de Investigación de la Reserva de la Biósfera de Mapimí. Scientific names were updated in accordance with the Integrated Taxonomic Information System’s “Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist” (ITIS, 2008). 2.3. Data analysis The diseases treated with medicinal fauna from Aquismón were grouped into 11 categories based on the classification used by the
International Classification of Diseases used by the World Health Organization (ICD, 2007). The relative importance (RI) of the species cited was calculated (adapted from Bennett and Prance, 2000) according to the following formula: RI = NCS + NP,
NCS =
NCSS , NSCSV
NP =
NPS NPSV
NCS is the number of body systems, which is obtained dividing NCSS, the number of body systems treated by a given species, by NSCSV, the total number of body systems treated by the most versatile species. NP is the number of pharmacological properties, which is obtained by dividing NPS, the number of properties attributed to a species, by NPSV, the total number of properties attributed to the most versatile species. The result can have a maximum value of 2, indicating the most versatile species. The informant consensus factor (ICF), adapted by Heinrich et al. (1998), estimates the level of agreement between interviewees about which animals to use for each category, and was calculated as follows: ICF =
nur − nt nur − 1
where nur is the number of citations of the animal in each category and nt is the number of citations of the uses given to the animal in each category. The result of this factor ranges from 0 to 1, where a value close to 1 indicates a well-defined selection criterion in the community and/or if that information is exchanged between informants, whereas a low value indicates that animal species are chosen randomly, or that informants do not exchange information about their use. 3. Results 3.1. Use of medicinal fauna A total of 24 animal species with medicinal purposes, belonging to 22 families and 4 taxonomic categories, were reported by interviewees. The animal species include insects (2), reptiles (7), birds (4) and mammals (11) and are used for treating a total of 30 illnesses
A.J. Alonso-Castro et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138 (2011) 233–237
235
Table 1 Animal species for medicinal purposes in Aquismón, San Luís Potosí, México. Scientific name Family Birds Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) Cathartidae Columba livia (Gmelin, 1789) Columbidae Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) Icteridae Gallus gallus (Linnaeus, 1758) Phasianidae Insects Apis mellifera (Linnaeus, 1758) Apidae Centruroides elegans (Thorell, 1876) Buthidae Mammals Canis latrans (Say, 1823) Canidae Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmerman, 1780) Cervidae Procyon lotor (Linnaeus, 1758) Procyonidae Didelphis virginiana (Allen, 1900) Didelphidae
Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus, 1758) Leporidae Sus scrofa (Linnaeus, 1758) Suidae Lynx rufus (Schreber, 1777) Felidae Mephitis macroura (Lichtenstein, 1832) Mephitidae
Common name [Teenek name] Voucher
Part used
Application
Disease
Aura [toˇıt] TN-SL-215 Young pigeon [tsittsin] PC-SL-813 Mexican thrush [Tsˇıok] ZP-SL-687 Hen [kwita’] GL-SL-846
Meat
Cooked
Epilepsy
8
0.27
Meat
Soup Soup
Infertility Diabetes
10
0.53
Meat
Soup
Cough
25
0.27
Fat Egg
Fat Rubbed
Otic infection Evil eye
4
0.53
Sting
Bite
Arthritis
10
0.27
Whole animal
Mixed with alcohol and rubbed
Arthritis
11
0.27
Fat Ointment
Soup Rubbed
Anemia, pain Cough
Fat Horn
Rubbed Macerated and rubbed
Fever, pain, inflammatory Pain, headache
Raccoon [edhém] MP-SL-568 Tlacuache [ut] TL-SL-314
Meat
Cooked
Backache, stomachache
Meat Meat Fat Bones
Soup Cooked Rubbed Water infusion
Rabbit [koy] CN-SL-474
Kidney
Pig [olom] CD-SL-123 Bobcat [padhum] GM-SL-633 Skunk [cashing út] ZR-SL-149
Bee [bàsgîi] AB-SL-159 Scorpion [dhiní] AC-SL-458
Coyote [chuch] CY-SL-612 Deer [Itsamal] VN-SL-369
Number of mentions
3
Relative importance
0.8
46
0.57
9
0.53
27
1.43
Cooked
Skin infection, heart attack Epilepsy Allergies, dermatitis Cough Stomachache
9
0.27
Kidney
Cooked
Ear pain, angina
25
0.53
Fat
Ointment
Arthritis
16
0.27
Fur Meat Fat Bones
Maceration in alcohol and rubbed Cooked Rubbed ointment Maceration
To keep away from bad spirits, hypertension Diabetes, cancer, inflammation Cough, bronchitis, dermatitis, asthma, wounds Cough Arthritis, cough, dermatitis, allergies, varicose veins Wounds, pain Inflammation
97
2.0
53
1.70
3
0.27
42
1.53
Taxidea taxus (Schreber, 1777) Mustelidae
Badger [besheˇı] TJ-SL-299
Fat Meat
Ointment Soup
Ammospermophilus interpres (Merriam, 1890) Sciuridae Dasypus novemcinctus (Linnaeus, 1758) Dasypodidae
Squirrel [ekˇıdhaˇı] AR-SL-369
Meat
Soup
Armadillo [Batˇıan] AR-SL-289
Fat Meat
Rubbed Cooked
Dermatitis, Inflammation, asthma, pain, Cough, wounds, tuberculosis
236
A.J. Alonso-Castro et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138 (2011) 233–237
Table 1 (Continued) Scientific name Family Reptiles Iguana iguana (Linnaeus, 1758) Iguanidae Trachemys scripta cataspila (Günther, 1885) Emydidae Crocodylus moreletii (Duméril & Bibron, 1851) Crocodylidae Crotalus atrox (Linnaeus, 1758) Viperidae
Hyla cinerea (Schneider, 1799) Hylidae Bothrops asper (Garman, 1883) Viperidae Hyla arenicolor (Cope, 1866) Hylidae
Common name [Teenek name] Voucher
Part used
Application
Disease
Number of mentions
Relative importance
Iguana [Tsalich] IG-SL-744 Tortoise [Pet] TG-SL-361
Meat Skin
Cooked Rubbed
Allergies Pain, fractures
35
0.63
Meat
Soup
Bronchitis, cough
13
0.37
Crocodile [ajin] CD-SL-901
Meat
Cooked
Pain
3
0.27
Rattlesnake [Kuechtli] SP-SL-166
Fat Meat Skin
Rubbed ointment Soup Rubbed
75
2.0
Toad [Kwa] SA-SL-933
Skin Whole animal
Rubbed rubbed
Cough, dermatitis, allergy, arthritis, grains, pain, rheumatism Anemia, cancer Skin infection Allergy, dermatitis Erysipelas, evil eye
12
0.9
Snake 4 noses [Tsedham] SC-SL-458 Frog [kˇıw] RA-SL-766
Meat Meat
Soup Macerated in alcohol and rubbed Macerated in oil and rubbed
Headache Wounds
17
0.53
Skin infections
18
0.27
Skin
and 2 cultural filiations (Table 1). All medicinal species have a name in Teenek and Spanish (Table 1). Nine animals with medicinal properties had not been reported previously, and these include 1 bird (Quiscalus mexicanus), 1 insect (Centruroides elegans), 3 mammals (Procyon lotor, Oryctolagus cuniculus, Lynx rufus) and 4 reptiles (Hyla arenicolor, Bothrops asper, Hyla cinerea, Trachemys scripta cataspila). Fauna such as Gallus gallus, Mephitis macroura and Hyla cinerea are used for magical purposes (Table 1). For instance, skunk tail is used as an amulet to defend people from evil spirits. Medicinal animals are prescribed as single drug or in combination with various medicinal plants. For instance, tlacuache bone powder is mixed with Echium vulgare for the treatment of cough. Furthermore, skunk bone powder is mixed with Bougainvillea glabra, Eucalyptus globosus and Persea americana for the treatment of cough. None of the medicinal fauna mentioned by the informants are endangered species. About 63% of medicinal animals are used to heal a disease and most folk remedies are administrated in the form of soups and ointments. The animal-derived products used are whole animal, meat, fat, bones, horns, egg, sting, kidney, fur and skin, and meat was the most cited product (Table 1). Products of skunk and rattlesnake are used to treat 10 illnesses each. Even with the presence of clinics in all communities, 100% of the interviewed people have used medicinal animals as an alternative therapy for many types of diseases. The lack of economical resources and the existence of traditional knowledge are the main reasons to use medicinal fauna. The most commonly mentioned species were Mephitis macroura – skunk (n = 97), Crotalus atrox – rattlesnake (n = 75), Taxidea taxus – badger (n = 53), Odocoileus virginianus – deer (n = 46). 3.2. Relative importance Five animals were found to be highly versatile in terms of their uses: Mephitis macroura (RI = 2.0), Crotalus atrox (RI = 2.0), Taxidea taxus (RI = 1.70), Dasypus novemcinctus (RI = 1.53) and Didelphis virginiana (RI = 1.43) (Table 1).
Table 2 Informant consensus factor. Category Certain infectious and parasitic diseases Diseases of the circulatory system Diseases of the digestive system Diseases of the ear and mastoid process Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue Diseases of the nervous system Diseases of the respiratory system Diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissues Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases Injuries, poisoning and other consequences of external causes Undefined illnesses
Taxons
Uses
ICF
5
2
0.75
7 13 10 82
3 2 2 7
0.67 0.92 0.89 0.93
11 161 83
2 9 7
0.9 0.95 0.93
24
4
0.87
31
5
0.87
145
14
0.9
3.3. Informant consensus factor The results showed that diseases of the respiratory system (ICF = 0.95), diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (ICF = 0.93), diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissues (ICF = 0.93), and diseases of the digestive system (ICF = 0.92) had the highest ICF values (Table 2). 4. Discussion Animal-based remedies play an important role in health care in Mexico. However, there are limited studies regarding this topic in México. This study includes 9 medicinal animals that had not been reported in scientific literature, provides new information for the Mexican traditional medicine and demonstrates the importance of local biodiversity. The prescription of medicinal fauna in Aquismón is done by local healers called “chamanes”, which receive the knowledge for
A.J. Alonso-Castro et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138 (2011) 233–237
healing by: (a) self-knowledge, (b) through dreams, or (c) taught by spirits (Gallardo-Arias, 2004). In this study, 92% of animal species are wild caught. This finding indicates that hunting reduces the acquisition costs of zootherapy. Similar results have been described in traditional medicines from Latin American (Alves and Alves, 2011). The results indicated that 63% of animal species are used to cure more than one illness. This trend is common practice in traditional medicines from Mexico and Latin American (Enriquez-Vazquez et al., 2006; Alves and Alves, 2011; Jacobo-Salcedo et al., 2011). The findings showed that the main ailments treated by medicinal fauna in Aquismón are diseases of the respiratory and skin systems, and there is also a consensus about the animals to treat these ailments. This might be because these illnesses are not considered of great severity. Previously, we showed that the dermatological, diabetes and reproductive categories had the greatest agreement in Mapimi, Durango (Northern México) (Jacobo-Salcedo et al., 2011). On the other hand, Enriquez-Vazquez et al. (2006) showed that medicinal fauna from Los Altos, Chiapas (Southern México) was used mainly for treating pain/fever followed by respiratory and dermatological illnesses. In this study, two medicinal animals are combined with medicinal plants for the treatment of respiratory diseases. This trend was also described in the Brazilian traditional medicine (Alves and Alves, 2011). In our previous report, Crotalus atrox – rattlesnake was the medicinal species with more citations, followed by Mephitis macroura – skunk (Jacobo-Salcedo et al., 2011). In this study, skunk was the most cited animal species, followed by rattlesnake. These results indicate that these two animal species play an important role in Mexican traditional medicine. Furthermore, these both animals have been used for the empirical treatment of several diseases in México since pre-Hispanic times (Hernández, 1959). Some of the animals recorded in this study are also used in popular medicine in other countries. In Brazilian traditional medicine, Gallus gallus fat is used for the treatment of flu, bronchitis and cough, whereas Catharteus aura liver is used for alcoholism and asthma. The bite of Apis mellifera is used for rheumatism whereas the fat of Iguana iguana and Sus scrofa fat is used for wounds (CostaNeto, 2011). In Nepal, the bite of Apis spp. is used to cure heart problems and Gallus gallus fat is used for the treatment of sprains and strains (Lohani, 2010). In summary, this study demonstrates that animal species play an important role in healing practices among inhabitants from Aquismón. In addition, the conservation of animal species needs to be considered to preserve the local medicinal knowledge. Further studies with medicinal fauna from Aquismón are required for the experimental validation of their traditional uses, especially with Mephitis macroura and Crotalus atrox.
237
Acknowledgements AJAC (174493), MdRJS (383083) and JJMM (253233) were endowed with graduate fellowships from CONACYT. Thanks to Dr. Jose Antonio Avalos-Lozano for providing the map. We wish to express our gratitude to Ana Perez Soriano for English edition. References Alves, R.R., Rosa, I.L., 2005. Why study the use of animal products in traditional medicines? Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 1, 5–9. Alves, R.R., Alves, H.N., 2011. The faunal drugstore: animal based remedies used in traditional medicines in Latin America. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 7, 9–52. Bennett, B.C., Prance, G.T., 2000. Introduced plants in the indigenous pharmacopoeia of Northern South America. Economic Botany 54, 90–102. Bye, R.A., 1979. An 1878 ethnobotanical collection from San Luis Potosi: Dr Edward Palmer’s first major Mexican collection. Economic Botany 33, 135–162. Coordinación Estatal para el Desarrollo Municipal (CEDAM), 2006.