Medical Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacology in Latin America 2013
1Biology Department, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manoel de Medeiros, 52171-900 Recife, PE, Brazil
2Laboratory of Comparative Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
3Health and Education Center, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campus Cuité, Olho D’Água da Bica S/N, 58.175-000, Cuité, Paraíba, Brazil
4Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, 58429-500 Paraíba, PB, Brazil
5Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina
Medical Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacology in Latin America 2013
Description
Through their long exposure and experience with natural resources, many local communities in Latin America have developed health care practices. Thousands of years of observation and experimentation have helped in the development of different empirical medical systems, as well as knowledge of plants, animals, and minerals. Both animals and plants provide extensive resources for new CAM approaches which may prove important for future applications. We are welcoming papers that explore different aspects of the use of natural resources in local medical systems of local people in Latin America, including health and disease perceptions, rituals, and practices, as well as studies involving the evaluation of local preparations from phytochemical and/or pharmacological point of view.
Studies that integrate local practices, based on natural resources, with local institutions (hospitals, doctors, and biomedicine) are especially welcome. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Recent developments in methods and theory
- Ethnopharmacological evaluations of traditional drugs
- Ethnobotany and traditional foods in health
- Historical perspective of ethnopharmacology
- Ethnopharmacology of America and psychoactive plants
- Randomized and controlled studies on traditional remedies
- Influence of migration on traditional medical systems
- Medical ethnobotany and zootherapy (the healing of human ailments by using therapeutics based on medicines from animals or ultimately derived from them is known as zootherapy)
- Ethnopharmacology in urban contexts
- Study of the perception, use, and management of botanicals or other types of pharmaceuticals
- Ethnopharmacology and development of new drugs
Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ecam/ebep13/ according to the following timetable: