An Ethnobotany of Cape Bush Medicine

This research describes an emergent ethnomedicine in the botanically rich Cape Floristic Region of South Africa. Bush doctors craft a niche providing affordable medical care at local transportation hubs. Detailed inventories of 39 herbal hawkers and multiple collection trips identify 192 ethnospecies collected, traded and sold by bush doctors, 181 were medicinal. The largely herbaceous pharmacopeia is narrow compared to the region’s high biodiversity and historical records indicating 533 medicinal plant species in the Cape. Estimates for the trade in medicinal plants were quantified and 33 species were identified as conservation priorities. Analysis of the cultural origin of use for the pharmacopeia reveal that herbs present were important to multiple South African cultural groups, including novel Rastafarian utilization of herbs. The collation of these medicinal plants represents a unified South African ethnomedicine. Bush doctors trade and sale of medicines create a diversified economy for primarily disadvantaged coloured and black consumers.