XVI. Ethnomedicine

Peperomia pellucida (L.) Kunth is a medicinal plant with ethnobotanical significance, yet the endophytic microorganisms associated with it and their antagonistic activities remain unexplored. This study isolated five fungal and two bacterial endophytes from the leaf tissues of P. pellucida and evaluated their antagonistic activity against Aspergillus aculeatus (OQ550967) and Penicillium oxalicum (OQ550966) using dual culture assays. Two fungal isolates, identified as Aspergillus niger (LSUPP-PF4-2) and Aspergillus flavus (LSUPP-PF5-1) based on ITS region sequencing, exhibited significant inhibitory activity against the phytopathogens. Both isolates demonstrated plant growth-promoting traits, including ammonia and hydrogen cyanide production and phosphate solubilization. GC-MS analysis of A. niger revealed bioactive compounds with antimicrobial properties. This study reports, for the first time in Nigeria, the antagonistic potential of endophytic fungi from P. pellucida, highlighting their role in plant health and the need to further explore this plant's medicinal and culinary applications.

This research in progress examines changes in cannabis genetics with a focus on cannabis genetic bottlenecking. Significant knowledge gaps exist in the study of how and why cannabis genetics have changed over time. To fill these gaps, a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with self-identified cannabis breeders around the world. Previous qualitative cannabis research has centered around users, growers, and dealers with few studies looking exclusively at cannabis breeders. Anticipated results include insights into changing cannabis breeding strategies and techniques as well as a historical shift to target high THC percentage, high yield in indoor cultivation settings, and low flowering times due to the economic pressures generated by various stages of The Prohibition. These results may be meaningful in highlighting the role of legalization on declining genetic diversity in the worldwide cannabis market - and its impacts on the medicinal potential and therapeutic index of legal cannabis products.

This review article includes using ethnomedicinal plants to cure different skin diseases documented in Gujarat state. A total of 56 papers were reviewed and listed about 193 plants that are used for Skin problems. Eighteen skin diseases classified under five categories based on their origin are Bacterial, Fungal, Viral, Parasitic, and Autoimmune. These plants are used to cure various skin diseases like Abscess, Boils, Mastitis, Leprosy, Ringworm, Tinea versicolor (Krodiya), Itching, Chicken pox, Measles, Warts, Rabies, Scabies, Psoriasis, Eczema, Leucoderma and specifically cosmetic practices. Among listed plants A. indica, C. fistula, A. vera, M. peguensis, S. tora, J. sambac, S. urens, and B. ceiba are mostly used to cure skin disease and in cosmetics. The significance of pharmacology is that proves it is used to cure that particular skin disease. It is important to understand that traditional practices are cost-efficient as well as beneficial to society in developing countries.

Animist traditional healing among Gonja people of rural northern Ghana views sickness as a kind of being living in the ill person. The presentation contrasts the use of antibiotics to treat infection by Western biomedical practices with how indigenous Gonja healers use plant antibiotics to prevent illness, and explains the action of plant medicines used by healers to treat illness living in a suffering individual.

The Gonjas' native language in rural northern Ghana, encodes traditional eco- and medicinal-knowledge through relational syllabic markers. We documented phonetic drift among native speakers of Gonja in 2021, becoming more noticeable as one moves west across Savannah Region, the traditional home of Gonja people. Since phonetic drift invariably leads to semantic drift, medicinal knowledge of traditional healers is becoming compromised.
This presentation covers how Gonjas are counteracting phonetic drift through language documentation methods with elders who still recall how their grandparents pronouced the names of flora and fauna species, thereby helping to preserve indigenous healing efficacy in the region.

Ethnobotanical knowledge provides a foundational framework for identifying plants with pharmacological potential, serving as an entry point for natural products discovery. By integrating traditional plant use with advanced scientific methods, researchers have developed systematic approaches to isolate and characterize bioactive compounds. These methods include targeted extraction techniques, bioassay-guided fractionation, and metabolomic profiling, which together uncover the chemical complexity of natural products and their therapeutic potential. The study of plants like Datura, whose traditional uses point to the presence of bioactive compounds, has led to the discovery of novel tropane alkaloids and facilitated screening efforts to evaluate their biological activities. By bridging traditional knowledge and modern techniques, the process of natural products discovery transforms culturally significant plants into a pipeline for developing new drugs, underscoring the role of ethnobotany in advancing global health.

Traditional medicine plays a vital role in global public health but is often overlooked as an efficient and legitimate resource in treatment protocols. Understanding various approaches to the integration of traditional medicine and “Western” health clinics in the rural Global South can help us consider potentials to expand this hidden synergy in safe, inexpensive, and ethical ways. In an effort to understand this integration more fully, a literature review and analysis of WHO reports, country health policy data, and case studies were performed to qualitatively and quantitatively document the past and current integration of health policies within individual countries. Through these analyses, past integration methods can be categorized into three general trends: cultural studies, scientific medical analyses, and broad national policy initiatives. Through promoting these methods of integration, the two systems of traditional and western medicine can harmonize together in mutually beneficial ways towards better health for all.

The Climate & Lāʻau Lapaʻau project seeks to understand the impact of climate change on Hawaiian medicine and care practices. In Hawaiʻi, sea level rise and other climate and anthropogenic factors threaten native species and ecosystems. Species at risk include plants, animals, and minerals that are integral to the practice of lāʻau lapaʻau, Hawaiian medicine. To understand how environmental change is impacting the availability, distribution, and need for species identified by lāʻau lapaʻau practitioners as important to the persistence of their practice, documentation, and communication of current conditions are needed. This project documents species, ecosystems, growing and gathering practices important to healing communities through interviews and co-productive research modalities, reciprocal practices of stewardship and cultivation by healing communities, common ailments being treated today, other concerns, challenges, and resiliencies discussed by practitioners, and communicates research approaches and findings to Hawaiian and other Indigenous communities with best practices in Indigenous data sovereignty.

Actaea (Rannunculaceae) is an important genus containing black cohosh (Actaea racemosa), an Appalachian medicinal plant. Two poorly understood areas within this genus are proper vegetative identification (thus preventing unintentional adulteration with co-occurring toxic species in the genus), and knowledge about embryo development and germination to aid in the conservation and propagation of these increasingly rare plants. Our investigation into Actaea has led to a better understanding of morphological characteristics, resulting in the development of improved vegetative dichotomous keys, and a new method that determines embryo viability and refines germination techniques. The improved methods increase understanding of metabolic trends during seed dormancy and will serve to refine germination techniques using quantitative data from fluorescing reactions. These minimally invasive methods are more useful compared to other existing embryo viability determinations, and will allow for increased efficiency and accuracy in agriculture and conservation including applications for other important ethnobotanical plants.