Traditional Lenca Medicine: anthropological approach, botanical and pharmacological

Abstract

This article about the research “Lenca Traditional Medicine” from three focuses: anthropological, botanical and pharmacological, made by professors and researchers of the CURC within the framework of the project “Lenca Culture, Traditional Medicine and Biodiversity”, arises with the purpose of knowing, documenting and divulge essential aspects of traditional medicine practiced by this ethnic group. The project was carried out within the framework of the activity “Governance in Ecosystems, Livelihoods and Water USAID / Honduras” This research is defi ned as an innovative study due to its interdisciplinary nature. We refer to three approaches from which traditional Lenca medicine was approached, taking as main units of analysis: The most common diseases detected by popular doctors in the villages visited, the taxonomy and cultural use of the medicinal plants identifi ed and the active principles present in those plants. The study presents a qualitative approach using the ethnographic method and performing the relevant bibliographic search for research. The fi eld work made it possible to systematically document the diseases that, according to the popular doctors of the communities, are the ones that are most frequently attended, in the same way the most used medicinal plants were documented, making a necessary and precise classifi cation between native plants and external plants.