Which Plants Used in Ethnomedicine Are Characterized? Phylogenetic Patterns in Traditional Use Related to Research Effort.

ABSTRACT: Plants are important resources in healthcare and for producing pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmacological and phytochemical characterization contributes to both the safe use of herbal medicines and the identification of leads for drug development. However, there is no recent assessment of the proportion of plants used in ethnomedicine that are characterized in this way. Further, although it is increasingly apparent that plants used in ethnomedicine belong to preferred phylogenetic lineages, it is not known how this relates to the focusing of research effort. Here we identify species and lineages rich in ethnomedicinal use and develop methods to describe how well they are known pharmacologically and/or phytochemically. We find 50% of plant species of the family Leguminosae used in ethnomedicine

SUBMITTER: Souza ENF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6019821 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature