The importance of ethnobotany

Ethnobotany is the science that studies the relationships between human societies and the plant world. From this relationship over time, knowledge is derived about names, uses, utilization and management of plant biodiversity which, on the one hand, constitutes a natural and cultural treasure that must be conserved and disseminated, and, on the on the other hand, it can serve as a basis for the development of new products of interest for human well-being. Ethnobotanical knowledge can help achieve sustainable development compatible with the conservation of biological diversity.

Joan Vallès, professor of Botany at the University of Barcelona, at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences and at the Biodiversity Research Institute of the UB (IRBio), explains in different forums that advances in ethnobotany have facilitate the conservation of biodiversity from both a natural (genetic, taxonomic, ecosystemic, etc.) and cultural perspective, with the preservation of popular knowledge about the plant world, its management and the relationship between human societies and plants over time.

Through ethnobotany, a great diversity of practical aspects of everyday life can be studied. The medicinal and alimentary uses of plants are the most popularly known, but they are also used as raw material to make clothes (cotton, linen...), utensils (wicker baskets), etc. In the immaterial realm, a lot of information is also generated from the relationship between people and plants (beliefs, rituals,...) Knowledge of the popular and traditional uses of plants is fundamental to discovering new medicines and foods and, therefore, to improve the state of health and nutrition of many populations and contribute to social and environmental well-being.

Ethnobotany is a transmission of knowledge, from one generation to another, from one territory to another, from one field of research to another.

Research in Ethnobotany 

The ethnobotany research group of the Catalan Countries, with staff linked to the University of Barcelona (UB), the Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB; CSIC-Barcelona City Council) and the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC), attached since 2016 in the Ethnological and Intangible Heritage Observatory network, he has been studying traditional knowledge linked to plants, i.e. research in ethnobotany. Its primary activity is research, but, in the ethnobotanical field, the group is very aware of the responsibility of conserving traditional knowledge and the biodiversity associated with it, as well as that of returning to society a natural and cultural heritage that comes from This group is one of the two branches of the research group whose acronym is EtnoBioFiC: biosystematics, phylogeny and molecular cytogenetics of plants (BioFiC/Planta) and ethnobotany of the Catalan Countries (EtnobotCat). Regarding the support for the scientific activity of the research groups of Catalonia (SGR), the team is integrated in the research group in plant biodiversity and biosystematics (GReB), coordinated by IRBio member Joan Vallès.

The research group has set up and is feeding a database of Catalan ethnobotany, which so far includes the results of all our completed works, as well as others in progress that we are introducing and research of other groups on these topics and territory. A first version of this website (https://etnobotanica.iec.cat) was made public in February 2021 and we expect that it will be complete in 2024, and from then on it will need to be updated regularly Currently the general database of the group exceeds 265,000 reports of names and uses of more than 1,900 taxa, coming from more than 3,500 informants from practically all the territories of the Catalan linguistic domain, on names and uses (medicinal, alimentary and other kind) of traditional plants, of interest in popular culture, botany, phytotherapy, nutrition, gardening and other fields.

Parallel to the development of the database, the group continues to carry out research, with fieldwork in territories that until now had not been studied in the area of the Catalan Countries, among others Andorra, Berguedà, Ibiza and one of the strategic areas (due to its isolation within the Catalan linguistic domain), Alguer. At the same time, it continues to process, elaborate and analyse the results obtained, while applying innovative approaches and methods compared to what has been done until now.

Information on publications and other activities of the group can be found on the website http://www.etnobiofic.cat