RESUMO
The community of San Martin de las Flores, Jalisco, MeÌxico has a varied flora, part of which is used by its residents to treat their diseases. One of these wild species that grows in this community is Verbesina sphaerocephala A.Gray (Asteraceae). The objective of this research was to provide an overview of local knowledge about the traditional uses of this plant. A quantitative ethnobotanical method to analyse the value of traditional use of this species among the community, as well as, bibliographic information on the existing phytochemical and pharmacological properties of species of the genus Verbesina has been used. When examining the general knowledge of V. sphaerocephala among the community, it was concluded that the plant is used mainly in traditional medicine to treat eight different types of diseases, highlighting its use as a wound healing and anti-inflammatory.
La comunidad de San Martin de las Flores, Jalisco, posee una variedad de flora, la cual, gran parte de ella es utilizada por sus pobladores para el tratamiento de enfermedades. Una de estas especies silvestres que crece en esta comunidad es Verbesina sphaerocephala A. Gray (Asteraceae). El objetivo de esta investigacioÌn fue proporcionar una visioÌn general del conocimiento local sobre los usos tradicionales de esta planta. Se ha utilizado un meÌtodo etnobotaÌnico cuantitativo para analizar el valor de uso tradicional de esta especie entre la comunidad, asiÌ como tambieÌn se recopiloÌ informacioÌn bibliograÌfica sobre las propiedades fitoquiÌmicas y farmacoloÌgicas existentes sobre especies del geÌnero Verbesina. Al examinar el conocimiento general de V. sphaerocephala entre la comunidad, se concluyoÌ que la planta es utilizada fundamentalmente en medicina tradicional para tratar ocho diferentes tipos de enfermedades, destacaÌndose su uso como cicatrizante y antiinflamatorio.
Assuntos
Humanos , Extratos Vegetais/química , Etnobotânica , Verbesina/química , Extratos Vegetais/farmacologia , Inquéritos e Questionários , MéxicoRESUMO
Background At present, species known as camote de cerro (Dioscorea spp.) are found only in the wilderness in Mexico, but their populations are extremely depleted because they are indiscriminately collected, it is urgent to evaluate the conservation status of these plants in order to design conservation genetics programs. In this study, genetic diversity parameters along with cluster analysis based on Jaccard's coefficient were estimated with the objective to assess the efficiency of Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR), Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) and Inverse Sequence Tagged Repeat (ISTR) molecular DNA markers in the Dioscorea genus. Results The polymorphic information contents were quite similar for all markers (≈0.48). Genetic variation of Dioscorea spp., in terms of average heterozygosity was lower with ISTR (0.36), and higher when other markers were used (RAPD = 0.43; ISSR = 0.45 and AFLP = 0.47). Conclusion This indicates an important level of genetic differences despite the fact that the plant is asexually propagated. Based on the diversity statistics, any marker tested in present work can be recommended for use in large-scale genetic studies of populations. However, the low correlations among different molecular marker systems show the importance of the complementarity of the information that is generated by different markers for genetic studies involving estimation of polymorphism and relationships.