Economic Botany最新文献

Sugarcane is one of the most economically important crops with particular cultural and economic significance in the Hawaiian Islands. The historical influence of sugarcane in Hawai‘i tends to overshadow the fact that Native Hawaiians cultivated dozens of unique varieties of sugarcane for almost a millennium before the arrival of Europeans. The objective of this study was to characterize the genetic and phenotypic diversity of sugarcane to reexamine the relationships between traditional Hawaiian sugarcane varieties and heirloom cultivars from elsewhere in the Pacific. To this end, a morphological assessment utilizing 95 phenotypic characteristics of 53 extant cultivars held in ethnobotanical collections was conducted, along with genetic assignment using 6,570 polymorphic SNP markers on 156 diverse varieties. In investigating distinct traditional cultivars of extant sugarcane collections in Hawai ‘i as “Hawaiian,” our findings demonstrated the need for intimate knowledge and relationships with accessions in order to make meaningful interpretations of genetic and phenotypic data. Based on over 15 years of involvement with the heirloom Hawaiian canes and the traditional and contemporary uses, we demonstrated and discussed the unique value of these cultivars, and their potential to contribute to economics, sustainability, and the preservation of cultural heritage.

Caribbean Women's Health and Transnational Ethnobotany. Immigrants from the Dominican Republic (DR) and Haiti are among the top foreign-born communities in New York City (NYC). As people migrate to new countries, they bring their ethnomedical beliefs and practices, and adapt their plant pharmacopoeias. Haiti and the DR share a flora on the island of Hispaniola. In NYC, the flora is limited to what is available in the city. We selected plants for future laboratory research based on ethnobotanical data from two surveys among Dominicans in the DR and NYC, and a Haitian literature review. In both Dominican datasets, gynecological infections were the top women's health condition treated with plants. We identified 10 species for this purpose reported by Dominicans that are also known medicines in Haitian culture, although not yet documented for women's health. Plants for gynecological infections potentially cause dysbiosis of the vaginal microbiota, and may increase rather than prevent disease. There is a public health need to assess traditional medicines for their ability to inhibit pathogenic bacteria, while causing minimal disruption to the vaginal flora. Several species are known antibacterials, but remain to be tested for their efficacy. These results also provide a foundation for a planned ethnobotanical survey among NYC Haitian women.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12231-021-09526-3.

French Guiana is an overseas French department in South America at the margin of the Amazon basin. Its population is characterized by an important number of cultural groups. Many inhabitants originate from the Caribbean (mostly Saint Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic). The objectives of this study were to present an overview of the main uses of plants among the Caribbean populations in French Guiana, and how they contribute to the dynamics of plant-based practices, in order to provide insights into ethnobotanical convergences, divergences, and hybridizations (such as the importation of new species and associated practices, and the adoption of Amazonian species by Caribbean people). Interviews and botanical voucher collections were conducted throughout the coastal area of French Guiana. Sixteen Saint Lucian, nineteen Haitian, eighteen French Caribbean, and twelve Dominican informants were interviewed during the fieldwork. Altogether they use 212 botanical species. Some plants have recently been imported directly from the Caribbean, while adaptations have also taken place: some species that do not exist locally are abandoned while Amazonian species are integrated to form hybrid pharmacopoeias. The phytotherapies of these communities in French Guiana are still conserved as consistent sets of knowledge, although they tend to blend through an ongoing process of hybridization.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12231-021-09529-0.