Ethnoveterinary practices in the selected sites
Knowledge of traditional health practices for animals is quickly disappearing in the study areas, as modern pharmaceuticals are replacing many plant remedies that have long been used to cure animals of various ailments. Particularly in the selected European sites including post-communist Albania,
institutionalised capillary animal healthcare systems have been established in recent times in accordance with EU regulations. Even in the more remote areas pharmaceuticals are delivered to farmers and small-scale animal breeders, so the use of medicinal plants in these sites is likely to be linked to a nostalgic need to maintain familiar customs. A partial exception was found in the three selected areas in North Africa, where plant-based veterinary remedies are still being maintained. On the other hand, there is a new tendency among urban dwellers to use plant-based and homoeopathic remedies; however amongst rural dwellers it is generally only well-acculturated organic farmers and veterinarians who have moved back to the countryside from large cities who are involved in these practices. Nevertheless, indications of the drift towards plant-based and homoeopathic remedies were directly observed in the discussions with our informants in the selected areas (see the relatively low total number of plant taxa recorded, additional file:
1), even though "modern" veterinary phytotherapy was not part of the RUBIA focuses.
Medicinal plants used in animal healthcare
In additional file:
1, we report on all the folk taxa recorded in the field survey that are used in local veterinary medicine. One hundred and ten plant taxa and 136 veterinary preparations have been recorded. In the same table, we give details of their administration, a description of their veterinary use and the animals that they are used on.
In Figure 2, we depict the most-used botanical families overall, with Asteraceae and Lamiaceae heading the list. Another comparative work [48] has already pointed out that people across the northern hemisphere use certain taxa belonging to the same plant families for medicinal purposes. The Asteraceae family, for example, ranks in this analysis first in three of four of the selected regions and second in the fourth.
| Figure 2 Most represented botanical families used in the folk veterinary phytotherapy of the selected sites. |
However, we believe that the predominant use of taxa belonging to a given botanical family in one area is very difficult to assess because of the large variety of plants that are available within one single region.
Following our analysis of the botanical family members used for veterinary purposes in each country, we found we could not speculate on Moerman's disputable proposition, since the areas we considered were very restricted and not at all phytogeografically representative of the entire flora of the relevant countries.
Moreover, exact data (and not mere estimates) on the existing flora within these restricted areas are in fact missing in the national taxonomical-botanical literature.
The relatively common use of Asteraceae and Lamiaceae within the worldwide medicinal plant panorama is not new, however, and could be due to phytochemical features. For example, the fact that Asteraceae contain mainly sesquiterpene lactones while Lamiaceae contain many essential oils implies that taxa belonging to these two families have generally a very marked taste (bitter in the case of Asteraceae and aromatic in the case of Lamiaceae). Other authors have suggested that this could have had a role in the selection of these medicinal plants by the first human groups [49-51].
Newly recorded veterinary plants
On comparing our recorded taxa with the ethnobotanical literature available in PubMed, Web of Science, and all the aforementioned ethnoveterinary references, we found that a few of the taxa recorded in our survey have not previously been recorded (or it have been very rarely recorded) as veterinary plants. Moreover, they have rarely been investigated using modern phytopharmacology and phytotherapy.
This was especially the case for the following species:
the desert species Anabasis articulata (Chenopodiaceae, Fig. 6), which is used by the Bedouins of the St. Catherine area in the Sinai Peninsula in topical applications to treat animals with skin diseases. Larvicidal activity was found in an aqueous extract of this taxon [52];
| Figure 6 Anabasis articulata (Forssk.) Moq. |
Cardopatium corymbosum (Asteraceae), whose roots are used in Cyprus in topical applications on wounds and as an antiseptic. Very few phytochemical works have been carried out on this species and its pharmacology is still largely unknown;
Lilium martagon (Liliaceae, Fig. 7), whose bulbs are used to treat liver diseases in both humans and animals in Northern Albania [53]. In the ethnoveterinary literature, we found find that in northwestern Spain the same bulbs are used in the local ethnoveterinary practices, externally, as anti-inflammatory and analgesic [28];
the legume, Dorycnium rectum (Fabaceae, Fig. 8), whose aerial parts were recorded in the Spanish site as being used as a decoction that is applied externally to treat burns and wounds. Apparently this species contains flavonoids, but its pharmacology has never been systematically investigated, except in a work by Molan et al. [54] on the activity of condensed tannins extracted from this species and used to treat nematoid motility;
Oenanthe pimpinelloides (Apiaceae, Fig. 9), which is used as fodder in the Italian site, where it is thought to heal swollen stomachs in poultry;
Origanum floribundum (Lamiaceae), recorded in the Algerian site where it is used to stimulate the appetite of cattle, sheep and horses;
Tuberaria lignosa (Cistaceae), whose aerial parts are used in the Spanish site in a decoction to treat wounds in domestic animals; two works have very recently underlined the antiviral activity of this species [55,56];
Dittrichia graveolens (Asteraceae, Fig. 10), whose aerial parts are used in Crete in an external application to treat lice in chicken. This species is well known for its essential oils, but its pharmacology is largely untapped.
Origins of medicinal plant uses in veterinary treatments: the link with human medicine
In the ethnoveterinary data recorded within the RUBIA project, nearly the half of the veterinary plant remedies for mammals has similar indications in local
human folk medicine (Figure
3).
| Figure 3 Proportion of the recorded veterinary plants used for healing mammals, which have also been recorded in the same selected study areas as being used in human folk medicine for treating "similar" diseases. |
As discussed in other works [57,58], ethnoveterinary practices have probably followed two main evolutionary pathways: one based on the observations of self-medication in animals, and the other related to human folk medicine. Nevertheless, the relationship between human and veterinary practices has been complex and mutual. In some cases, humans could have tried certain plants on animals before applying them to themselves, but in other cases they undoubtedly used plants in veterinary practices, which were already used in traditional medicines to heal human beings.
Although it is difficult to distinguish between pharmacological and nutritional adaptations made by animals, there is certain evidence that animals deal with and take advantage of plant allelochemicals that have an apparent medicinal effect in a feeding context (see for example literature on self-medication in chimpanzees [59,60]).
Comparative analysis: does Mediterraneanism really exist in medicinal plant uses?
In Figure
4 we show the most quoted plant taxa used to cure animals in the various selected areas, and indicate in bold those taxa whose botanical genera have been recorded in veterinary practices in at least two areas. Overall, we found that there are ten botanical genera that are used in more than one country:
Allium, Artemisia, Juniperus, hypericum, Mentha, Lawsonia, Olea, Origanum, Pistacia, and
Ruta.
| Figure 4 Most commonly recorded veterinary phytomedicines in the selected areas (in bold are reported taxa whose botanical genera have been recorded in at least one other country). |
If we consider botanical genera that were quoted fewer times, we find that Eurphorbia, Malva and Rhamnus have also been recorded in more than one of the selected sites.
Details about all the taxa and genera whose veterinary use is shared in diverse study areas are reported in Figure 5.
| Figure 5 Diagram showing the botanical genera and taxa of veterinary folk remedies, whose use is shared in two or more of the selected areas. |
The percentage of taxa commonly used among the various areas has been extremely low (8%), however when all taxa belonging to the same botanical genera are considered, this portion increases to 17%. In the eastern sites (for example, Cyprus and in particular Egypt) there seems to be fewer taxa that are used in more than one area compared with the western sites. Hence the veterinary phytotherapy used in the eastern areas indicates that very few features are shared among the various regions (Figure 5). As far as the Egyptians are concerned, this could be due to the fact that the flora in the desert environment of the Sinai Peninsula is peculiar to that particular region.
In any case, looking at our overall results, we can see that any common heritage in plant uses in the Mediterranean would be extremely limited. It could be claimed that the chosen areas are not ecologically and culturally representative of the entire Mediterranean region or that much traditional ethnoveterinary knowledge has already disappeared, and this is truth. However it is may be worthwhile to emphasize that the sites were chosen by each research team individually, in accordance with common criteria. None of the other groups influenced their choice in any way, and so the data are basically bias-free.
On the other hand, it is clear from how the entire project has been conceived that our data are not representative either of the ethnobotany/ethnoveterinary of all the countries involved in this study. In our opinion, the data shown here should motivate instead other ethnobotanical research teams to carry out further comparative analyses in the Mediterranean. We also believe that our findings raise a crucial question concerning the assumption that it has to exist a common circum-Mediterranean cultural heritage that influences many human activities and the ethnobotany in the region. If it is true that during the entire history of this broad geographical area, a very complex system of exchanges and relationships between cultures has taken place (which must have had a remarkable influence on scholastic traditions in medicine and pharmacopoeias), we believe that the notion of a common cultural heritage in the Mediterranean ethnobotany and folk knowledge would represent, at least in part, a cultural construction. Our data demonstrate in fact that is very difficult to speak about a "Mediterranean ethnobotany" as a whole; instead we have a very variegate and composite Mediterranean made by many "Mediterraneans". Hence we feel that Herzfeld, the first scholar to complete a study of the "evil eye" in Greece [2], was correct in criticizing the idea of a unitary Mediterranean.
All in all, a common cultural heritage, which surely can be seen in other fields of human knowledge and practice, cannot be automatically recognized when looking at this specific portion of the ethnobotanical data that we have recorded.
Veterinary phytotherapy in Mediterranean rural areas: which perspectives for the future?
An interesting dimension of the veterinary traditional knowledge that was recorded during our study concerns those plants cited for healing cattle, sheep, goats, and camels, and used to improve the quality of milk and dairy products.
Far more research is needed in this domain in order to provide an understanding of the effects of specific plants on animal health in general, and especially on the quality and quantity of meat and dairy products. An important potential long-term output of this study and other studies like it could be the development of eco-sustainable projects that have as a primary goal the use of plant-based remedies in traditional and new agricultural and animal breeding systems.
Such projects could also permit the controlled use of suitable phytotherapeuticals and extracts derived from plants, perhaps under the supervision of local veterinary services, which could add further value to local products in many "marginal" Mediterranean areas. However, to accomplish this, the strategic and political agenda of many national veterinary services might need to be changed slightly, since there seems to be a great deal of bias against pluralistic concepts of animal healthcare in the regions we have investigated.