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Ethnobotany of Immunomodulatory Treatments Used by the Q’eqchi’ Maya of Belize

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Abstract

Using a quantitative ethnobotanical methodology, we identified 107 plant species belonging to 49 families used by Q’eqchi’ Maya healers in the treatment of symptoms from 14 usage categories related to inflammation. The families with the largest number of medicinal species were Piperaceae, Araceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Adiantaceae with five or more medicinal species. Healer consensus for plant species was high, with 56 species (52%) being used by all the healers, and consensus for usage categories was also high, as informant consensus factor (FIC) values for each category were greater than 0.4.

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Acknowledgements

We thank members of the Q’eqchi’ Healers Association who shared their knowledge and Federico Caal who translated interviews and aided in plant collection. Matthew Moher, MD, generously helped with symptom categories. We greatly appreciate identification of Araceae by Thomas Croat, Missouri Botanical Garden.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Brendan Walshe-Roussel & John Thor Arnason

  2. Herbario Juvenal Valerio Rodriguez, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica

    Marco Otarola Rojas & Pablo Sanchez Vindas

  3. School of Health Sciences, Center for Healing Across Cultures, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Todd Pesek

  4. Belize Indigenous Training Institute, Punta Gorda, Toledo District, Belize

    Victor Cal

Authors
  1. Brendan Walshe-Roussel
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  2. Marco Otarola Rojas
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  3. Pablo Sanchez Vindas
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  4. Todd Pesek
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  5. Victor Cal
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  6. John Thor Arnason
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Correspondence to John Thor Arnason.

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Walshe-Roussel, B., Otarola Rojas, M., Sanchez Vindas, P. et al. Ethnobotany of Immunomodulatory Treatments Used by the Q’eqchi’ Maya of Belize. Econ Bot 73, 154–170 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-019-09451-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-019-09451-6

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