The Trade in African Medicinal Plants in Matonge-Ixelles, Brussels (Belgium).

ABSTRACT: Maintaining cultural identity and preference to treat cultural bound ailments with herbal medicine are motivations for migrants to continue using medicinal plants from their home country after moving to Europe and the USA. As it is generally easier to import exotic food than herbal medicine, migrants often shift to using species that double as food and medicine. This paper focuses on the trade in African medicinal plants in a Congolese neighborhood in Brussels (Belgium). What African medicinal plants are sold in Matonge, where do they come from, and to which extent are they food medicines? Does vendor ethnicity influence the diversity of the herbal medicine sold? We hypothesized that most medicinal plants, traders, and clients in Matonge were of Congolese origin, most plants used medicinal

SUBMITTER: van Andel T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5258814 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature