Honey-based mixtures used in home medicine by nonindigenous population of Misiones, Argentina. Medicinal mixtures are an underinvestigated issue in ethnomedical literature concerning Misiones, one of the most bioculturally diverse province of Argentina. The new culturally sensitive politics of the Provincial Health System is a response to cultural practices based on the medicinal use of plant and animal products in the home medicine of the local population. Honey-based medicinal formulas were investigated through interviews with 39 farmers of mixed cultural (
The province of Misiones in Argentina displays a complex biocultural mosaic. The original inhabitants of this territory are Mby’a Guaraní indigenous people, who nowadays live in reserves and in rural areas in neighborhoods with nonindigenous farmers [
Misiones harbors one of the richest plant biodiversity in the whole Argentinean territory [
Medicinal plants not only are relevant resources as part of valuable traditional lore, but also play an essential role in the ethnomedical systems of people who have no health insurance. In Andresito municipality, located close to our study area, 77 percent of the population has no health insurance [
Honey is an important alimentary and medicinal resource in the region [
We still know very little about the diversity of uses of honey among the inhabitants of Misiones and South America, in general. Few studies have focused on honey-based remedies and they represent isolated pieces of information within the wide scope of ethnobotanical studies [
Our research among
The use of plants and animal products in home medicine forms a part of traditional ecological knowledge, which implies a close relationship between people and places [
Plant and animal mixtures employed in the home medicine of local societies are understudied in ethnobiological and ethnopharmacological literature [
We hypothesize that different ethnospecies of honey bees and medicinal plants have different cultural and therapeutic importance for
The research was conducted in the northern part of Misiones, which forms a part of the Atlantic Forest Ecoregion [
The most important economic activities in the region are forestry and agriculture, supplemented by cattle breeding. The first is based on monoculture plantations of exotic species of pine (
The research was conducted in two departments: Iguazú and General Manuel Belgrano. Both of them share a border with Brazil (in the north and northeast, resp.). The department of Iguazú is also bordered by Paraguay in the west. We worked in two areas: Wanda and Gobernador J. J. Lanusse settlements, in the department of Iguazú, and in hamlets in the Andresito Península and Maria Soledad municipality, Andresito Guaçurarí, and San Antonio (Figure
Study area.
Wanda and Lanusse were established as Polish rural settlements. Wanda, situated on the banks of the Parana River, developed into a town with semirural lots on its outskirts. The Lanusse locality, 36 km from Wanda, conserved its rural character with a poor infrastructure. Nowadays Wanda and Lanusse exhibit a multicultural character: in addition to the Polish pioneers and their children, Argentinean migrants from other provinces as well as Paraguayan and Brazilian immigrants live there.
The study sites of Peninsula Andresito and Maria Soledad (department of General Manuel Belgrano) are hamlets with minimal infrastructure (dusty unpaved roads, not completely electrified areas, satellite schools). They are inhabited by small farmers of mixed cultural backgrounds (hereafter called
This field work took place in 2009. After obtaining prior informed consent, an open-ended questionnaire was applied in the Spanish language. It consisted of seven sections with questions that sought to understand the contexts of use of the honey of Hymenoptera. With regard to the medicinal uses assigned to honey and other products derived from it, we aimed to investigate (a) the illnesses treated, (b) the forms of preparation and administration of remedies that include honey, and (c) the role of honey in the preparation of home remedies when they included other elements (plants, animal products, pharmaceuticals). Additional questions were asked about the place and mode of obtaining the mentioned resources (honey and plants). Illnesses are reported according to local ethnomedical terminology and classification. Only the reports of self-experience were included in the analysis, thus reports of uses not tried by the study participants were discarded.
We worked with 16 Polish settlers and their descendants (hereafter called Poles or Polish migrants), mainly from the first and, occasionally, second generation born in Argentina, aged between 39 and 77 (9 men and 7 women), and with 23
The plants were collected in the presence of the study participants. Then, voucher specimens were identified by the authors (Monika Kujawska) and deposited in the herbarium of the
In this analysis, we included bee species that were mentioned by at least three informants and referred only to the use of honey (not other products derived from bees). The relative importance (RI) was calculated for each plant and animal species based on the normalized number of pharmacological properties attributed to it and the number of body systems it treated [
To evaluate the variability of the medicinal plants’ use within each study group, the informants’ consensus factor (ICF) was calculated [
We registered the use of 58 different taxa in the course of the field research. Fifty of them are botanical taxa (including 5 industrially processed plant products), belonging to 38 genera and 27 botanical families. Eight taxa are products of animal origin: honey of 5 bee species and fatty products extracted from three vertebrates (Table
Relative importance (RI) value of species used in honey-based mixtures by Criollos and Poles in north of Misiones, Argentina. P/C: Poles/Criollos, RIP: relative importance Poles, and RIC: relative importance
Scientific name, botanical family (common name) | (#reports) P/C | RIP | RIC | Mode of preparation and administration | Ailment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2/0 | 9.00 | — | Oral, infusion, with lemon, and abeja’s honey, a pharmaceutical* (optatively) | Cough, influenza | |
1/2 | 7.28 | 7.28 | Oral, syrup, with abeja’s honey | Catarrh | |
0/4 | — | 12.45 | Oral, decoction, with eucalyptus, | Bronchitis, pneumonia | |
Oral, frying o mixed without cooking, with oil, and yateí’s honey | Cough | ||||
1/0 | 7.28 | — | Oral, mixture, with abeja’s honey | Tonsillitis | |
0/2 | — | 9 | Oral, Infusion, with orange, yateí’s honey or burned sugar, and a pharmaceutical | Catarrh, cough | |
0/11 | — | 12.45 | Oral, syrup, abeja’s honey | Influenza, respiratory tract, bronchitis, pneumonia, colds, cough | |
47/124 | 68.2 | 66.48 | Oral, pure | Dyspepsia, constipation; nervous commotion; blood pressure imbalance, blood cleansing (humoral syndrome) preventive, influenza, colds, cough, sore throat, tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, catarrh | |
Topic, pure | Injury, bruises, abscess; muscular pain | ||||
1/0 | 7.28 | — | Oral, Infusion, with abeja’s honey | Dyspepsia | |
12/1 | 14 | 7.28 | Oral, mixture, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Bronchitis, catarrh, influenza | |
(manteca) | 1/0 | 9 | — | Oral, mixture, with abeja’s honey | Cough, sore throat |
0/2 | — | 7.28 | Topic, Compress with yateí’s honey | Bruises, abscess | |
0/1 | — | 7.28 | Oral, syrup with abeja or yateí’s honey | Influenza | |
2/0 | 9.00 | — | Topic, with yateí or mirí’s honey | Injury | |
0/1 | — | 7.28 | Oral, decoction, with eucalyptus, garlic, oil, and abeja’s honey | Bronchitis, pneumonia | |
0/18 | — | 14.18 | Oral, decoction, with lemon, | Tonsillitis, catarrh, influenza | |
Oral, syrup, | Sore throat | ||||
3/22 | 10.73 | 10.73 | Oral, decoction, eucalyptus, citrus, and abeja’s honey | Catarrh, sore throat, cough | |
Oral, decoction, with lemon, | Tonsillitis, catarrh, influenza | ||||
Oral, syrup with abeja or yateí’s honey | Cough, bronchitis, pneumonia | ||||
0/16 | — | 12.45 | Oral, decoction, with lemon, | Tonsillitis, catarrh, influenza | |
Oral, syrup, with | Sore throat | ||||
0/1 | — | 7.28 | Oral, pure | Influenza | |
1/0 | 7.28 | — | Topic, compress, with carabozá, mirí o yateí’s honey | Injury | |
0/4 | — | 21.84 | Oral, infusion, with abeja’s honey | Preventive | |
14/46 | 12.45 | 26.63 | Oral, decoction, tea, abeja or yateí’s honey. With red wine, a pharmaceutical (optatively) | Influenza, colds, sore throat, cough | |
Oral, syrup, with orange and abeja’s honey | Cough | ||||
Oral, syrup, with yateí’s honey | Respiratory tract | ||||
4/2 | 9 | 14.18 | Oral, decoction, with tea, abeja or yateí’ honey, a pharmaceutical (optatively) | Influenza, cough | |
Oral, syrup, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Influenza | ||||
0/2 | — | 14.56 | Oral, infusion, with abeja’s honey | Cough, preventive | |
ídem | |||||
2/0 | 9.00 | 7.28 | Oral, mixture, with abeja’s honey | Influenza, cough | |
0/4 | — | 21.84 | Oral, infusion, with abeja’s honey | Preventive | |
2/20 | 14.56 | 45.02 | Oral, syrup, with abeja or yateí’s honey; or with lemon and abeja’s honey; with | Colds, cough, catarrh, respiratory tract, nervous commotion | |
Topic, poultice, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Bruises, abscess | ||||
3/0 | 10.73 | — | Oral, decoction, with eucalyptus, | Sore throat, catarrh, cough, influenza | |
3/0 | 10.73 | — | Oral, infusion, with lemon and abeja’s honey; with abeja’s honey | Influenza, colds; cough | |
2/4 | 9 | 12.45 | Oral, mixture o infusion, with oil and abeja’s honey; infusion with orange, yateí’s honey or burned sugar and a pharmaceutical | Cough, catarrh, bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza | |
3 | — | 10.73 | Oral, infusion, with yateí’s honey | Fever | |
4/6 | 12.45 | 9.00 | Oral, decoction, with | Sore throat, cough, catarrh | |
Oral, syrup, with citrus and yateí’s honey; decoction with | Influenza | ||||
0/4 | — | 15.9 | Oral, syrup, with | Respiratory tract | |
Oral, infusion, with yateí’s honey or burned sugar | Tonsillitis, sore throat | ||||
Oral, decoction, with abeja’s honey and a pharmaceutical | Colds | ||||
3/13 | 10.73 | 21.46 | Oral, mixture, with abeja or yateí’s honey; decoction, with eucalyptus, | Sore throat, bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza | |
Oral, mixture or infusion, with | Cough, catarrh | ||||
Oral, mixture, with yateí’s honey | Constipation | ||||
ídem | |||||
1/0 | 7.28 | — | Oral, infusion, with abeja’s honey | Nervous commotion | |
5/3 | 10.73 | 10.73 | Oral, mixture, with abeja or yateí’s honey; with tea and abeja’s honey | Catarrh, respiratory tract | |
0/2 | — | 9.00 | Topic, poultice, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Bruises, absecess | |
4/0 | 23.56 | — | Oral, infusion, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Blood pressure imbalance, nervous commotion, blood cleansing (humoral syndrome), to fortify the body | |
0/1 | — | 7.28 | Oral, infusion, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Cough | |
0/11 | — | 14.18 | Oral, decoction, with lemon, | Tonsillitis, catarrh, cough, influenza | |
4/0 | 23.56 | — | Oral, infusion, with lemon and abeja or yateí’s honey, a pharmaceutical (optatively) | Cough, sore throat, influenza, catarrh, colds, dyspepsia | |
0/4 | — | 9.00 | Oral, infusion, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Colds, cough | |
0/13 | — | 15.90 | Oral, decoction, with lemon, | Tonsillitis, catarrh, influenza | |
Oral, syrup, with abeja’s honey; with | Cough, influenza, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, tuberculosis; respiratory tract | ||||
Cfr. | 0/5 | — | 12.45 | Oral, syrup, with | Cough, influenza, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, tuberculosis |
2/0 | 9.00 | — | Oral, infusion, with abeja’s honey | Dyspepsia | |
0/5 | — | 16.28 | Oral, syrup, | Sore throat | |
Topic, compress, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Injury | ||||
1/0 | 7.28 | — | Oral, infusion, with abeja’s honey | Dyspepsia | |
9/0 | 23.18 | 16.28 | Oral, pure | Influenza, tonsillitis, colds, asthma; bronchitis, pneumonia, cough, muscular pain | |
Saccharum officinarum L., Poaceae (azúcar quemada, burnt sugar) | 0/6 | — | 7.28 | Oral, infusion, with orange, | Catarrh, cough catarrh, sore throat, cough |
Oral, decoction, eucalyptus, citrus, and | Tonsillitis, sore throat | ||||
(aguardiente) | Oral, macerated with | Asthma | |||
0/12 | 17.62 | Oral, syrup, with | Respiratory tract | ||
Oral, macerated with aguardiente and abeja’s honey | Asthma | ||||
0/1 | — | 7.28 | Oral, infusion, with bee or yateí’s honey | Cough | |
0/4 | 12.45 | Oral, mixture, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Colds, bronchitis, pneumonia | ||
37/68 | 59.20 | 58.81 | Oral, pure | Cough, respiratory tract, catarrh, asthma, influenza, sore throat, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, thrush; nervous commotion, preventive, parasites; dyspepsia | |
Topic, pure | Ocular illness; insect’s bite; bruises, abscess, injury; bronchitis, pneumonia | ||||
14/14 | 12.45 | 19.35 | Oral, decoction, with lemon or | Influenza, colds, catarrh, cough | |
0/8 | 25.29 | 14.56 | Oral, pure | Stomach fever ( | |
Topic, pure | Rheumatic illness | ||||
0/3 | — | 7.28 | Topic, poultice, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Bruises, absecess | |
0/2 | — | 7.28 | Topic, poultice, with abeja or yateí’s honey | Bruises, absecess | |
7/0 | 14.18 | — | Oral, decoction, with lemon and abeja’s honey; mixture, with abeja’s honey | Colds, catarrh, cough, influenza | |
ídem |
*Pharmaceuticals composed of acetylsalicylic acid, paracetamol, or ibuprofen.
The study participants reported 109 medicinal uses, which included a single-species remedy—pure honey—and 214 uses in which honey was combined with other elements: with one plant species (39.3%), with two or more plant species (16.4%), with vegetable oil (5.6%), with milk (5.1%), with animal fat (4.2%), with two or more plants and a pharmaceutical (3.7%), with one plant and vegetable oil (2.8%), with one plant and a pharmaceutical (2.8%), with one plant and alcoholic beverage (2.3%), with alcoholic beverages (1.9%), with at least two plants and vegetable oil (0.9%), and with a pharmaceutical, and with one plan and fat (0.5%) each (Tables
Numbers of affections according to body systems and forms of preparations.
Body system | no. affections | Forms of preparation |
---|---|---|
Respiratory | 11 | A (37; 27), B (18; 27), C (23; 23), D (7; 2), E (5; 6), F (10; 2), G (2; 0), H (0; 1), BD (0; 1), BE (4; 2), BG (5; 0), BH (2; 3); CE (0; 2); CH (1; 7) |
Skin | 5 | A (1; 8), B (9; 12) |
Humoral medicine | 5 | A (1; 0), B (4; 0), G (1; 0), BH (0; 1) |
Digestive | 4 | A (6; 4), B (5; 0), E (0; 1) |
Ophthalmic | 1 | A (5; 4) |
Musculoskeletal | 1 | A (0; 4) |
Psychological | 1 | A (1; 2), B (2; 1) |
Circulatory | 1 | A (1; 0), B (1; 0) |
General | 1 | A (1; 1), B (2; 1) |
In parentheses no. reports (Poles;
A (pure honey), B (honey, one plant species), C (honey, at least two plant species), D (honey, animal fat), E (honey, vegetable oil), F (honey, milk), G (honey, alcoholic beverage), H (honey, a pharmaceutical), BD (honey, a plant species, animal fat), BE (honey, a plant species, vegetable oil), BG (honey, a plant species, alcoholic beverage), BH (honey, a plant species, a pharmaceutical), CE (honey, at least two plant species, vegetable oil), and CH (honey, at least two plant species, a pharmaceutical).
The single-species remedies refer to honey of 5 bee taxa: European honey bee—abeja—(
During the interviews, the participants were asked, which components in the mentioned mixtures had medicinal properties for them, and whether honey could be replaced by sugar. By this question, we aimed to determine the role of honey in multispecies formulas: as a medicine or as a sweetener. Over 90 percent of
The relative importance (RI) analysis showed that different species are important for each of the study groups (Figure
Rank-abundance curves (adapted) of species with the ten highest relative importance (RI) values by study group.
The taxa used by Polish migrants and
Species richness and similarity (Simpson Coefficient) between Poles and Criollos according to source and mode of obtaining resources used in honey-based mixtures.
Source | Mode of obtaining | |||||||||||||
Home unit | Transformed habitats | Forest | Market | Collected | Purchased | Cultivated/bred | ||||||||
Total species richness | 27 | 16 | 10 | 16 | 18 | 17 | 34 | |||||||
Poles | Poles | Poles | Poles | Poles | Poles | Pole | ||||||||
Richness | 14 | 21 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 14 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 25 |
Relative % | 43.8 | 45.7 | 28.1 | 19.6 | 18.8 | 19.6 | 31.3 | 26.1 | 31.3 | 30.4 | 31.3 | 28.3 | 53.1 | 54.3 |
Exclusive species | 6 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 17 |
Shared species | 8 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | |||||||
Simpson Coefficient | 57.1 | 22.2 | 83.3 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 47.1 |
Rank-abundance curves (adapted) of exclusive species with higher relative importance (RI) value according to source and mode of obtaining resources by Poles and
More than 50 percent of the taxa are cultivated or bred in both groups, but the similarity of cultivated and bred taxa between
The registered medicinal resources are employed in the treatment of diverse ailments, which were lumped into 9 body system disorders. There is a total consensus among both groups and within each community in the treatment of ophthalmologic problems, and a high consensus in the respiratory symptoms and illnesses (0.86, 0.88 Polish and
Informants’ consensus factor, comparison between Poles and
Poles | ||
---|---|---|
Respiratory | 0.86 | 0.88 |
Skin | 0.5 | 0.77 |
Humoral medicine | 0.38 | 0 |
Digestive | 0.64 | 0.43 |
Ophthalmic | 1 | 1 |
Musculoskeletal | — | 0.33 |
Psychological | 0.33 | 0.33 |
Circulatory | 0 | — |
General | 0.5 | 0.14 |
*
(A higher value indicates a high rate of agreement between the informants, a low one a low degree of agreement).
Working with an ethnobiological questionnaire on the use of honey in nonindigenous communities of northern Misiones led us to discuss medicinal plants. The presented results illustrate the rich complexity of home medicine among
The botanical species mentioned by study participants include groups of plants of different cultural origins, as a result of the cultural blending that took place in Misiones in the 20th century. A relatively high number of mentioned taxa are used exclusively by each of the study groups, although they live in the same area (60 km apart), which indicates a great local heterogeneity in choices of medicinal resources. This can be explained by the continuity/discontinuity of medical traditions and the cultural influences of the neighboring countries, which affect Polish migrants and
The rich tradition of using medicinal plants and the honey of stingless bees by
The most important plant species—with the highest RI value for
The use of honey in medicinal mixtures has a long tradition in America [
Other studies on medicinal mixtures conducted in Latin America document their low-component character in home therapies. Lay people prepare mixtures predominantly made of 2-3 species at home, which is much fewer than those prepared by professional healers [
This research shows that the availability of products partly determines the composition of mixtures. If one component is not available, then the medicine is still prepared without it, or a missing ingredient is replaced by something else. Different species of citrus are especially subject to easy substitution. Therefore, there is a certain flexibility in the composition of medicinal formulas used by
In the research conducted among the Dominicans, Vandebroek and colleagues [
Twenty-nine botanical species and 7 animal products (62 percent of the total) reported in our research are edible and are employed in the local diet [
The importance of food medicine has been well documented in Polish ethnomedicine [
Pure honey and honey-based mixtures are used primarily to treat respiratory symptoms and illnesses by both study groups. Additionally, there is a very high consensus within each group on the resources used in medicinal mixtures destined to treat respiratory system disorders. Among other body system disorders, skin problems are also commonly treated with honey-based medicines. However,
The selection of medicinal resources in home medicine is an ongoing process. In the study region, the pattern of plant and animal exploitation for medicinal purposes have been shaped by cultural and ecological aspects. As a consequence of the massive migration that Misiones witnessed, large portions of the Atlantic Forest of the Upper Parana have been converted into forest monocultures, cultivated fields and pastures. The nonindigenous population of the northern Misiones lives in modified and disturbed environments [
Therefore, nearly all the species documented in this research come from modified habitats and home gardens. Very few of the species mentioned are collected from the primary forest, for example,
Over fifty percent of species and products used in honey-based mixtures are cultivated and nonnative to the area. The number of purchased and collected species is similar. The collected plants and animals are forest species and weeds, which prosper in ruderal and cultivated areas. There is a difference between Poles and
This research has contributed to the documentation of local knowledge and practices concerning medicinal mixtures within the nonindigenous population of Misiones. On the one hand, we observe a great variability in honey-based mixtures, which reflects the inherited ethnomedical traditions of the study groups, a cultural legacy, which persisted throughout the migration process; then we observe the individualistic character of strategies and choices, as well as a heterogenic perception of resource availability between the cultural groups of Misiones. On the other hand, we observe a heterogeneity of practices within each cultural group. Heterogeneity in medicinal practices indicates variation in medicinal knowledge, which may positively influence knowledge exchange among individuals from the same community and between members of different cultural groups. It may also encourage people to experiment with plant and other medicinal resources.
On the whole, the new culturally sensitive politics of the Ministry of Health will make sense, if it shows a closer insight into this local dynamic and tries to understand what are the main social and environmental modelers involved in therapeutic choices. Therefore, new qualitative, in-depth approaches are needed to address the problem, such as stories of life, social networking, and knowledge exchange, so that future health actions are designed taking the appropriate local context into account [
Results like ours are also relevant to ethnopharmacological follow-up studies, because they inform how different elements are combined to create a desirable effect. Moreover, focusing solely on individual plants is not efficient in the treatment of those health afflictions that are preferentially treated with mixtures by local people (see Vandebroek et al. [
The authors would like to acknowledge the inhabitants of the settlements under study for their valuable cooperation, patience, and goodwill. They thank the contributions of Guillermo Gil, M.S., who made the Figure