Medicinal use value of the flora used by the Andean Community of Jesús, Cajamarca, Peru

Abstract

The medicinal flora plays a valuable role in improving the quality of life; ancestral knowledge that constitutes a legacy inherited by the Andean-Amazonian communities. The research was focused on determining the medicinal use value of the flora used by the Andean Community of Jesús. 96 semi-structured interviews were applied, using the "snowball" technique. The population of the Andean Community employs 84 species of flora, distributed in 80 genera and 45 families; where the Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Rutaceae and Fabaceae were the most representative. Likewise, they suffer from 56 diseases, grouped into 11 categories, being the diseases of the Systems: respiratory (FCI=0.68), digestive and gastrointestinal (FCI=0.57), urinary (FCI=0.57), cardiovascular (FCI=0.56), reproductive (FCI=0.54) and Nervous (FCI=0.53), the most treated. Finally, the Andean Community attributes great importance to 54 species of medicinal flora; Therefore, it is urgent to implement projects and research that promote their sustainability.