September 2014
Date:
18 Sep 2014
An ethnobotanical study among Albanians and Aromanians living in the Rraicë and Mokra areas of Eastern Albania
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10722-014-0174-6
Abstract
Ethnobotanical research in
South-Eastern Europe is crucial for providing the baseline data needed
for both implementing community-based management of the local natural
resources and (further) developing small-scale markets of local herbal
and food products. An ethnobotanical study was carried out among
(Muslim) Albanians and (Christian Orthodox) Aromanians living in the
Rraicë and Mokra areas of Eastern Albania.
The survey was conducted by interviewing 36 local, elderly individuals
from five villages regarding the traditional uses of wild food plants,
medicinal foods, and home-made medical remedies devoted to both humans
and animals. Thirty-six plant taxa were found to comprise the local wild
food cuisine as well as the cuisine of medicinal foods
and cultivated plants prepared in unusual ways; 59 plant taxa were used
in human folk medicine and 20 plant taxa in local ethnoveterinary
practices. In total, 221 preparations, the large majority plant-based,
were recorded. Among the findings, the uncommon food uses of potato
leaves as a vegetable and lacto-fermented potato tubers (until the
recent past), the widespread use of Chenopodium and Rumex spp. as wild vegetables, as well as the leaves of Ilex aquifolium
as a diuretic remedy, dried wild orchid tubers to treat cough and
helminthiasis, and elderberry flowers to treat wounds, deserve further
investigation. Approximately half of the plant uses reported by
Aromanians were not recorded among Albanians, thus suggesting divergent
ethnobotanical pathways, perhaps due to the different religious faiths
of the two communities, which have prevented intermarriage over the last
few centuries.
