title: Can organoleptic properties explain the differential use of medicinal plants? Evidence from Northeastern Brazil.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study examined how people classify plants in terms of their taste and smell, and how those organoleptic properties influence the differential use of medicinal plants for treating different diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted an ethnobotanical survey of household heads in the community of Sucruiu, located in Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil. The head of each family was questioned concerning their knowledge and use of medicinal plants, as well as the therapeutic indications (TIs), taste, and smell of each plant. We then tested for associations between the therapeutic indications and taste attributes of various plants using the Chi-squared test on a contingency table with Monte Carlo simulations. The same analysis was performed for associations between TIs and smell.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study participants provided more details when classifying tastes than when classifying smells. We considered only the most cited TIs and attributes, and found significant associations between both taste and therapeutic indications (p<0.001) and smell and therapeutic indications (p<0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results showed that the taste and smell of a plant can influence its differential medicinal use, since plants with certain tastes and smells prevailed in the treatment of distinct diseases. However, our results are valid only for the most popular TIs and organoleptic attributes.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Oeste da Bahia, Centro das Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Estrada para o Barrocão, s/n, Morada Nobre, 47800-000 Barreiras-BA, Brazil. Electronic address: patricia.muniz@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Patrícia Muniz
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: de Medeiros
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Oeste da Bahia, Centro das Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Estrada para o Barrocão, s/n, Morada Nobre, 47800-000 Barreiras-BA, Brazil.
authors.forename: Bárbara Luzia
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Santos Pinto
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Campus IX. Rodovia BR 242, km 4, s/n, Loteamento Flamengo, 47800-000 Barreiras-BA, Brazil.
authors.forename: Viviany Teixeira
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: do Nascimento
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D012903:Smell; D013649:Taste
keywords: Brazil; Ethnomedicine; Medicinal plant selection; Traditional medicine