Snakebites and ethnobotany in the northwest region of Colombia Part I: Traditional use of plants

In Antioquia and Choco, traditional healers attend 60:: of snakebites. With the aim to produce an inventory of the plants used by the healers to treat snakebites and to document the methods of preparation, administration, the dosage, number of patients treated throughout their years of practice with treatment results, 20 healers with experience in Bothrops. Porthidium and Bothriechis envenomations were interviewed between August, 1996 and Novembe r, 1998, They belong to nine black and three indigenous rural communities l ocated near the towns of Bojaya, Vigia del Fuerte, Unguia (Atrato river val ley), Nuqui and Bahia Solano (Pacific coast). Based on field interviews, 10 1 species of plants were identified as used to treat snakebites. The part u sed of each plant varies according to the species. Sixty plants are used in the form of drinks prepared by infusion, decoction or maceration; 78 as ex ternal baths on the affected extremity; 11 for steam application and 39 for poultices: the latter is used mainly when the bite is complicated by local necrosis. In mild and moderate envenomations, they generally use a mixture of three plants, while ill severe cases they mix from five to 12, a handfu l of each one. Treatment is generally performed for 1-3 days, when the pati ent reacts positively. They reported to have treated 454 patients during th eir years of experience, 20 of them (4.4%) died. With the guidance of the h ealers, 77 species of plants were collected and photographed. These plants belong to 41 families, of which Piperaceae (13 species), Araceae (six speci es), Asteraceae (five species) and Gesneriaceae (three species) have the hi ghest number of species. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.