Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 27;12(1):135.
doi: 10.3390/plants12010135.

Trends of Medicinal Plant Use over the Last 2000 Years in Central Europe

Maja Dal Cero  1 , Reinhard Saller  2 , Marco Leonti  3 , Caroline S Weckerle  1
Affiliations

Trends of Medicinal Plant Use over the Last 2000 Years in Central Europe

Maja Dal Cero et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Medicinal plant knowledge in Central Europe can be traced back from the present to antiquity, through written sources. Approximately 100 medicinal plant taxa have a history of continuous use. In this paper, we focus on use patterns over time and the link between historical and traditional uses with the current scientific evidence. We discuss our findings against the backdrop of changing eras and medicinal concepts. Based on use-records from totally 16 historical, popular and scientific herbals, we analyze how use categories of 102 medicinal plant taxa developed over time. Overall, 56 of the 102 taxa maintained continuous use throughout all time periods. For approximately 30% of the continuous uses, scientific evidence supporting their use exists, compared to 11% for recently added uses and 6% for discontinuous uses. Dermatology and gastroenterology are use categories that are relevant across all time periods. They are associated with a high diversity of medicinal taxa and continuously used medicinal species with scientific evidence. Antidotes, apotropaic (protective) magic, and humoral detoxification were important use categories in the past. New applications reflecting biomedical progress and epidemiological challenges are cardiovascular and tonic uses. Changes in medicinal concepts are mirrored in plant use and specifically in changes in the importance of use categories. Our finding supports the concept of social validation of plant uses, i.e., the assumption that longstanding use practice and tradition may suggest efficacy and safety.

Keywords: Central Europe; historical ethnobotany; historical ethnopharmacology; medicinal plants; traditional use.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Synchronoptic view of key drivers influencing medicinal plant use.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pie charts show the total number of taxa used for a specific use category. Bar charts show the percentage of total taxa used in different eras.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of use categories for 6 species during different eras, showing different diachronic trends.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Leonti M., Staub P.O., Cabras S., Castellanos M.E., Casu L. From cumulative cultural transmission to evidence-based medicine: Evolution of medicinal plant knowledge in Southern Italy. Front. Pharmacol. 2015;6:207–2015. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2015.00207. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Leonti M., Cabras S., Weckerle C.S., Solinas M.N., Casu L. The causal dependence of present plant knowledge on herbals–Contemporary medicinal plant use in Campania (Italy) compared to Matthioli (1568) J. Ethnopharmacol. 2010;130:379–391. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2010.05.021. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Clair S. Die Kräutermedizin des Renaissance-Arztes Tabernaemontanus (16. Jh.) und Phytotherapie heute—Was ist geblieben, was hat sich verändert? Schweiz. Z. Ganzheitsmed. 2011;23:46–52. doi: 10.1159/000323387. - DOI
    1. Uehleke B., Hopfenmueller W., Stange R., Saller R. Are the Correct Herbal Claims by Hildegard von Bingen Only Lucky Strikes? A New Statistical Approach. Complement. Med. Res. 2012;19:187–190. doi: 10.1159/000341548. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mayer-Nicolai C. Vergleich der Durch die Historischen Autoren Hildegard von Bingen und Leonhart Fuchs Pflanzlichen Arzneimitteln Zugeschriebenen mit Aktuell Anerkannten Indikationen. Universität Würzburg; Würzburg, Germany: 2008. [(accessed on 22 October 2022)]. Available online: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-33967.

LinkOut - more resources