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. 2023 Jun 19;12(12):2372.
doi: 10.3390/plants12122372.

Temporal Changes in the Use of Wild Medicinal Plants in Trentino-South Tyrol, Northern Italy

Giulia Mattalia  1   2 , Felina Graetz  3 , Matthes Harms  3 , Anna Segor  3 , Alessio Tomarelli  3 , Victoria Kieser  3 , Stefan Zerbe  4 , Andrea Pieroni  3   5
Affiliations

Temporal Changes in the Use of Wild Medicinal Plants in Trentino-South Tyrol, Northern Italy

Giulia Mattalia et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Mountain regions are fragile ecosystems and often host remarkably rich biodiversity, and thus they are especially under threat from ongoing global changes. Located in the Eastern Alps, Trentino-South Tyrol is bioculturally diverse but an understudied region from an ethnobotanical perspective. We explored the ethnomedicinal knowledge of the area from a cross-cultural and diachronic perspective by conducting semi-structured interviews with 22 local inhabitants from Val di Sole (Trentino) and 30 from Überetsch-Unterland (South Tyrol). Additionally, we compared the results with ethnobotanical studies conducted in Trentino and South Tyrol over 25 years ago. The historical comparison revealed that about 75% of the plants currently in use were also used in the past in each study region. We argue that the adoption of "new" medicinal species could have occurred through printed and social media and other bibliographical sources but may also be due to limitations in conducting the comparison (i.e., different taxonomic levels and different methodologies). The inhabitants of Val di Sole and Überetsch-Unterland have shared most medicinal plants over the past few decades, yet the most used species diverge (perhaps due to differences in local landscapes), and in South Tyrol, people appear to use a higher number of medicinal plants, possibly because of the borderland nature of the area.

Keywords: Alps; biocultural diversity; borders; ethnomedicine; historical ethnobotany; local ecological knowledge; mountain regions.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Venn diagram of the number of medicinal plant species in the Puster Valley (presumably collected in 1994) and Überetsch–Unterland (collected in 2022).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Venn diagram of the number of medicinal plant species in Val di Sole (collected in 1978–1979 and 2022).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Venn diagram of the number of medicinal plant species in Val di Sole and Überetsch–Unterland (collected in 2022).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of plant taxa used by at least three interviewees in Val di Sole and Überetsch–Unterland.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Top five apparatuses per number of mentioned ailments. Supplement refers to substances used as antiviral, antibacterial, vitamin and mineral supplements, energizers, etc. which do not refer to any specific apparatus.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Venn diagram of the number of medicinal plant species in Val di Sole (collected in 1978–1979) and the Puster Valley (presumably collected in 1994).
Figure 7
Figure 7
On the left, the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bozen–South Tyrol in northeastern Italy and, on the right, the location of the three case study areas of Val di Sole, Überetsch–Unterland, and Puster Valley (the latter for the historical comparison).
Figure 8
Figure 8
On the left, a typical panorama of Val di Sole (credit: Anna Segor); on the right, a typical view of Überetsch–Unterland (credit: Lena Seebacher).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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