title: Ethnomedicinal practices and medicinal plant knowledge of the Yuracarés and Trinitarios from Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro-Sécure, Bolivian Amazon.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated the ethnomedical practices and knowledge of medicinal plant and fungus species of contemporary Yuracaré and Trinitario ethnic groups from Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro-Sécure (TIPNIS), located in the Bolivian Amazon region. Our aim was to identify the culturally most significant medicinal plant families, growth forms and species, as well as to assess the current state of knowledge regarding the bioactivity of the most important species, based on available literature data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medicinal plant and fungus species were inventoried during homegarden and swidden sampling, walk-in-the-woods and transect sampling. Data on medicinal uses were obtained from 12 Yuracaré and 14 Trinitario participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We commence by providing a brief overview of Yuracaré and Trinitario ethnomedical systems, highlighting the important shamanistic component of particularly Trinitario traditional medicine. The rest of the paper is dedicated to an analysis and discussion based on the 349 inventoried medicinal plant and fungus species. Contingency table and binomial analyses of medicinal plants used versus the total number of inventoried species per family showed that several plant families are significantly over (Piperaceae, Araceae, Solanaceae, Asteraceae and Siparunaceae) and underused (Chrysobalanaceae, Sapotaceae, Lauraceae, Celastraceae and Annonaceae) in traditional medicine in TIPNIS. Also herbaceous plants are significantly overrepresented in the medicinal plant inventory, which is in line with relevant literature. Our ranking of medicinal species according to cultural significance is based on the Quality Use Agreement Value (QUAV) index we developed and presented in a previous paper. Results indicate that the QUAV index's property to mainly select species that combine multiple ethnomedical uses with high informant consensus, justifies its use as a measure of cultural significance of medicinal plants in TIPNIS. Results of a literature search suggest, on the other hand, that the QUAV(s) score of a species could also be indicative of its bioactivity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In addition to the QUAV index's value as a tool for assessing the cultural significance of medicinal species, it might also be useful to identify species with a higher likeliness of being bioactive.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture and Ethnobotany, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. evert.thomas@gmail.com
authors.forename: Evert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Lucio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Semo
authors.forename: Melchor
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morales
authors.forename: Zacaria
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Noza
authors.forename: Humberto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nuñez
authors.forename: Aurelio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cayuba
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noza
authors.forename: Nieve
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Humaday
authors.forename: Juana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vaya
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van Damme
mesh_terms: D001838:Bolivia; D003625:Data Collection; D005006:Ethnicity; D019448:Ethnobotany; D005260:Female; D005658:Fungi / Q000378:metabolism*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D019423:Shamanism