Journal of Ethnopharmacology

Volume 127, Issue 1, 8 January 2010, Pages 175–192

The rainbow hurts my skin: Medicinal concepts and plants uses among the Yanesha (Amuesha), an Amazonian Peruvian ethnic group

• Céline Valadeau^{a, b, c},
• Joaquina Alban Castillo^b,
• Michel Sauvain^{c, d},
• Augusto Francis Lores^e,
• Geneviève Bourdy^{c, d, ,}

doi:10.1016/j.jep.2009.09.024

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Abstract

Yanesha, also called Amuesha, is a group of amerindian people, belonging to the arawak linguistic family. They dwell in the central region of Peru, at the oriental foothills of the Andes. Their territory covers a large range of ecological settings, and communities spread from 1800 down to 400 m/snm. The Yanesha culture is vivid to this day, and people strongly rely on traditional medicine in their everyday life. An exhaustive ethnopharmacological survey leads us to collect 249 species with medicinal uses. An overview of the Yanesha pharmacopoeia, linked with ethnomedicinal practices is presented in this paper.

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Graphical abstract

Keywords

• Yanesha;
• Amuesha;
• Medicinal plants;
• Traditional medicine;
• Peru;
• Shamanism;
• Arawak;
• Amazon

Corresponding author at: UMR-152, Faculté de Pharmacie, Université Paul Sabatier, 118, rte de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France. Tel.: +33 562259811; fax: +33 562259802.

Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.