2024, Vol. 12, Issue 4, Part A

In all geographical areas of the world, throughout the history of populations, relationships with ecosystems have allowed the emergence of valuable knowledge for survival. The taming of Nature has seen the birth of medicines linked to plants. Despite the great influence of so-called modern medicine, this phenomenon is still effective today and seems to be increasingly potentiated. In many countries in the south of the planet, medicinal plants constitute the only alternative. Pharmacopoeias and modern medicine are often in complementary relationships. This is the case in the French West Indies where traditional uses are consubstantial with psychosomatic and symptomatological medicine. From surveys we were able to establish the list of the main medicinal plants of Martinique as well as that of the corresponding pathologies. This field information was supplemented by ethnobotanical and ethnomedicine data. As a result, the relationships between plants and diseases are complex. Differentiations exist between plant organs and the pathologies treated. This work opens up a field of questions, particularly concerning the veracity of medicinal uses and their safety. Further studies in other fields should resolve these issues.