Categorization of plant uses utilized by the inhabitants of urban and rural areas of Peru

Abstract

Nowadays, the use and harnessing of vegetal resources has resulted in much ethnobotanical research, which has documented a rapid erosion of traditional knowledge in native Peruvian cultures, encouraging its preservation and consequent revaluation. In order to ease the analysis of the data obtained in the multiple studies that have been made, this proposal constitutes an approximation of the classification criteria for the categories of plant uses associated with the life and culture of Peruvian inhabitants. These use categories’ definitions are the result of 130 field expeditions carried out by the authors, in coastal, Andean and Amazon Peruvian communities, as well as the evaluation of 17 281-use registries documented in nine foreign and Peruvian herbaria. The nine use categories proposed in this article, are divided in 60 subcategories: medicinal (21), social (8), human food (3), animal food (3), materials (10), toxic (4), ethnoveterinary medicine (2), environmental (6) and fuel (3). The authors conclude that the proposal of the use categories standardization will simplify the compilation and analysis of plant uses in a community, and it will allow making comparisons between different ecosystems and communities.