1
Departamento de Terapéutica Médico-Quirúrgica, Facultad de Medicina,
Universidad de Extremadura, E-06006 Badajoz, Spain
2 Grupo de Investigación de Recursos Etnobiológicos del Duero-Douro (GRIRED), Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Salamanca, E-37071 Salamanca, Spain
2 Grupo de Investigación de Recursos Etnobiológicos del Duero-Douro (GRIRED), Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Salamanca, E-37071 Salamanca, Spain
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2014, 10:37
doi:10.1186/1746-4269-10-37
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/10/1/37
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/10/1/37
| Received: | 2 February 2014 |
| Accepted: | 23 April 2014 |
| Published: | 30 April 2014 |
© 2014 Vallejo and González; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Abstract
Background
Fish-based therapeutics is fundamentally based on a dietary use, but these vertebrates
have also been employed in the treatment of infectious and parasitic diseases, during
pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum and to deal with diseases of the different systems.
Methods
An overview of the ethnomedical and historical Spanish literature has been carried
out. Automated searches in the most important national and international databases
have been performed. All related works have been thorough examined.
Results
We examine the historical use of 54 medicinal fish species, 48 marine and six from
inland waters. As useful, in Ancient times 39 species have been recorded (of which
only 21 have been collected in subsequent periods), seven in the Middle Ages, 18 in
Modern times and 17 in the contemporary period. Anguilla anguilla, Engraulis encrasicolus or Scyliorhinus canicula are species that have survived over time as an ingredient in Spanish folk remedies.
Most remedies used in the last century and currently are empirical remedies based
on the humorism theory and the principle of contraria contrariis curantur (74%), and the rest (26%) are magical type remedies that complete the popular therapeutic
arsenal.
Conclusions
In the last century we find a progressive decrease in the number of fish species used
in ethnomedicine. Only seven taxa have been documented as surviving therapeutic resources
since centuries ago. The existence of a dynamic Spanish ethnomedicine has also been
detected which has managed to generate new therapeutic resources in recent times.
It is important to validate the remedies by ethnopharmacology and evidence-based medicine.
In order to recover as much data as possible, it will be necessary to draw up an inventory
of ethnoichthyological uses.
Keywords:
Ethnozoology; Ethnomedicine; Fish; Medical history; Medical anthropology; SpainBackground
Ethnozoology is an emerging field in many areas of the world and it is divided, due
to its multidisciplinary character [1], into branches of knowledge such as ethnoentomology, ethnoherpetology or ethnoornithology
[2-4].
Fishes have a long history of interaction with humans, thus “ethnoichthyology” is
acquiring an important role in ethnozoological research [5-7]. There are some studies that discuss the role of ichthyofauna in traditional medicines,
mainly in fishing communities [8-12], and that reveal a large number of fish species used in zootherapy, understood as
the medicinal use of animals and animal-derived products to treat illnesses and health
conditions [13,14].
These works on zootherapy are a very useful tool in the exploration of pharmacologically
active substances [15,16]. But also there are other reasons of an anthropological kind for carrying out these
ethnozoological studies. For example, they can help us in the understanding of the
human behavior toward health care and the use-consumption of fish resources. As well,
in many developing countries these studies have a great value in fish diversity conservation
[17-19].
In Spain there has not been any ethnozoology development and only very few articles
have been published with an ethnobiological approach, although some anthropological,
folk and ethnomedicinal studies have focused on the connections between human society
and animals [20-23]. This has affected the study of the interactions between humans and fish (ethnoichthyology),
and the zootherapy based on these vertebrates is a field of research that has not
been given due attention and must therefore be constructed from a framework of an
“historical ethnozoology”. Following this philosophy, this paper illustrates the use
of fishes in Spanish ethnomedicine and its historical development as a therapeutic
resource. It provides an inventory of the species that have been used for medicinal
purposes from ancient times to the present, and analyses the medical use of fishes
in the 20th century.
Thus, our main objective is to obtain an inventory of the fish species that have been
used in Spain for therapeutic purposes from antiquity to the present. From this we
determine which medicinal species have survived to recent times and what diseases
or medical conditions they have been used for.
