Arzneipflanzen Mexikos: Ethnobotanik, phytochemie, pharmakologie

Abstract

Mexico is a country with an enormous ecological, botanical and ethnological diversity. The use of medicinal plants has a long tradition in Mexico and has been influenced especially by the medical systems of the numerous Mexican indigenous groups, but also by European popular medical systems and by biomedicine. Medicinal plants are grown as home remedies, are collected in the environment of the communities, are sold on markets or by healers or ambulant vendours. From the large number of medicinal plants known in Mexico, some particularly prominent ones are discussed: Guazuma ulmifolia, Hippocratea excelsa, Hyptis verticillata, Mimosa tenuiflora, Montanoa tomentosa, Packera canditissima. They all were investigated from a phytochemical and biological-pharmacological perspective. These examples demonstrate the recent achievements of the pharmaceutical research on Mexican medicinal plants.