Coping with ill-health: health care facility, chemist or medicinal plants? Health-seeking behaviour in a Kenyan wetland.

Background: Sub-Saharan African wetlands, settlement areas to growing populations, expose their users to diseases as necessary health infrastructure remains underdeveloped.

Methods: Mixed methods were adopted to assess the health-seeking behaviour of different exposure groups (farmers, pastoralists, service sector workers) in a Kenyan wetland community. Based on a cross-sectional survey (n = 400), syndromic surveillance was linked to health-seeking event analysis.

Medicinal plants used to treat snakebite in Central America: Review and assessment of scientific evidence.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Every year between 1.2 and 5.5 million people worldwide are victims of snakebites, with about 400,000 left permanently injured.

Data on medicinal plants used in Central America to manage diabetes and its sequelae (skin conditions, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, urinary problems and vision loss).

The data described in this article is related to the review article "Medicinal plants used in the traditional management of diabetes and its sequelae in Central America: a review" (Giovannini et al., 2016) [1]. We searched publications on the useful plants of Central America in databases and journals by using selected relevant keywords.

Medicinal plants used in the traditional management of diabetes and its sequelae in Central America: A review.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Globally 387 million people currently have diabetes and it is projected that this condition will be the 7th leading cause of death worldwide by 2030. As of 2012, its total prevalence in Central America (8.5%) was greater than the prevalence in most Latin American countries and the population of this region widely use herbal medicine.

Medicinal plants of the Achuar (Jivaro) of Amazonian Ecuador: ethnobotanical survey and comparison with other Amazonian pharmacopoeias.

Aim Of The Study And Ethnopharmacological Relevance: This paper presents the first ethnobotanical survey conducted among the Achuar (Jivaro), indigenous people living in Amazonian Ecuador and Peru. The aims of this study are: (a) to present and discuss Achuar medicinal plant knowledge in the context of the epidemiology of this population (b) to compare the use of Achuar medicinal plants with the uses reported among the Shuar Jivaro and other Amazonian peoples.

Materials And Methods: The author conducted field research in 9 indigenous villages in the region of Morona Santiago and Pastaza in Ecuador.

Do pharmaceuticals displace local knowledge and use of medicinal plants? Estimates from a cross-sectional study in a rural indigenous community, Mexico.

Researchers examining the relationships between traditional medicine and biomedicine have observed two conflicting tendencies. Some suggest that the use of biomedicine and biomedical concepts displaces the use of traditional medicine and medical beliefs. Other scholars have found that traditional medicine and biomedicine can co-exist, complement, and blend with each other.

Xki yoma' (our medicine) and xki tienda (patent medicine)--interface between traditional and modern medicine among the Mazatecs of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Objectives: Little is known about the interface of traditional (generally plant based) medicines and of commercially available pharmaceutical (and related) products. Here we provide a case study to understand how and to what extent traditional and modern medicine have been integrated in an indigenous community and whether these two categories offer a meaningful model for understanding medicine selection. Consequently, this paper explores the use and knowledge of medicinal plants and patent medicines among laypeople living in a rural Mazatec indigenous community in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The effect of rainfall during gestation and early childhood on adult height in a foraging and horticultural society of the Bolivian Amazon.

Recent research documents the effects of adverse conditions during gestation and early childhood on growth responses and health throughout life. Most research linking adverse conditions in early life with adult health comes from industrial nations. We know little about the plasticity of growth responses to environmental perturbations early in life among foragers and horticulturalists.