Use of Vascular Plants for the Treatment of Cultural Syndromes in Andean Communities of Perú

摘要: Cultural syndromes considered as a disease by a culture, or a people cause a series of symptoms that are difficult to explain, which makes it difficult to understand and the role they play in treating the health of the Peruvian Andean population. The objective of this study was to record cultural syndromes and determine the vascular plants used for their treatment in Peruvian Andean communities in the departments of Ancash, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, and Huancavelica. The methodology consisted of carrying out ethnobotanical walks, semi-structured interviews, and free lists. Six cultural syndromes were recorded, for which 159 plant species grouped into 47 families are used. The communities of Cajamarca and Ayacucho registered the highest use of plants with 89 and 48 species, respectively. The most representative families were Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Solanaceae and Fabaceae. A total of 1,373 use-reports (UR) were recorded, with “mal de aire” or bad air sickness (800 UR, 122 species) and “susto” or “fright sickness”(449 UR, 77 species) having the most reports and number of species. The most cited species were Mutisia mathewsii and Clinopodium breviflorum (Ayacucho); Alnus acuminata (Ancash); Achyrocline alata, Monactis macbridei and Clinopodium sericeum (Cajamarca); and Ambrosia arborescens, Senecio ferreyrae and Spartium junceum (Huancavelica). Finally, the medicinal plants used for cultural syndromes are of importance to the Peruvian Andean population, evidenced in the richness of medicinal species used and the conservation of traditional local knowledge.