Ethnopharmacology

Plants have probably been used as medicines since well back into the Middle Paleolithic. Since there is a substantial overlap of use of the same plants as both foods and medicines, the simple appearance of a plant in a prehistoric archeological site does not guarantee its use as a medicine.

Ethnopharmacology can be defined as a cross cultural study of the medicinal plant use by various ethnic groups including indigenous peoples and the relevance of these traditional medicines for pharmacology in general and for the health of the people using these plants.

It is also an amalgam of perspectives, primarily those of pharmacology, pharmacognosy, anthropology, and botany.

The knowledge of ethnopharmacology provides the basis for the herbal remedy industry. Ethnopharmacology was born from the need to promote scientific research on medicinal plants and autochthonous knowledge in relation to the plants, not only in order to better understand their properties, but also to make better use them in local and international markets.
Ethnopharmacology