Rizoma: a new comprehensive database on traditional uses of Chilean native plants.

Chile, South America.

We collected the available ethnobotanical data through three steps of the literature review. First, we searched articles by using the Web of Science database (from January 1983 to December 2018), with the keywords "ethnobotan*", "ethnomedicin*", "ethnopharmacolog*", "gathering practice", "traditional knowledge", "traditional practices", "traditional plant uses", "detergent plants", "dye plants", "edible plants", "fodder", "magic* plants", "medicin* plants", "ritual plants", "veterinary plants", "cosmetic plants", "*craft* plants", "fuel plants", "psychotropic plants", "wood* plants", "construction plants", "non-timber forest products", "wild plant uses" + "Chile" in both English and Spanish following the PRISMA statement (Moher et al. 2009). This initial search returned 743 articles, which were refined by categories; engineering, meteorology, atmospheric sciences, soil science and others were considered irrelevant and excluded. From this, we obtained 222 articles, to which we applied a new filter by selecting only articles and reviews (i.e. removing proceedings papers, meeting abstracts), resulting in 217 articles. Then, we examined these articles by looking for abstracts that match the main criteria for providing information on the uses of Chilean flora. Based on the abstract selection, we considered 72 papers for full-article review. Finally, 62 articles were selected, focused on the uses of Chilean flora mainly from ethnobotanical, ethnographic, archaeobotanical and anthropological approaches.

In a second step, we repeated the search in Spanish through Google Scholar by using the same search keywords. We conducted this new search due to the scarcity of results returned by Web of Science using Spanish keywords. Several studies on the uses of Chilean flora have been published in local journals or bulletins not included in the Web of Science databases, limiting potentially valuable results. This initial search returned 515 results, but provided many spurious results. Subsequently, we filtered them by looking for abstracts (or descriptions according to availability), selecting 54 results. From this, we selected 35 after a full review. Lastly, in a third step, we reviewed monographs, theses and books related to the uses of Chilean flora available in thirteen university and municipal libraries, obtaining 171 documents. These three literature review steps resulted in 268 selected references listed in Suppl. material 1.

The database only considers native wild plant species; thus, we excluded those alien or cultivated, based on the Database of alien plant species in Chile (Fuentes et al. 2012). We followed the Catalogue of the vascular plants of Chile (Rodriguez et al. 2018) to compare and update the scientific names, genera and families of the useful species and to remove duplicate synonymised species since this catalogue offers the most up-to-date taxonomic treatment for the Chilean flora. We also included common names (in Spanish) obtained from the reviewed literature. However, we only considered common names, provided together with scientific names to avoid any uncertainty about the identity of the species. Then, we determined the life form and life span for each species according to Rodriguez et al. (2018), as well as their geographical distribution (administrative regions of Chile) and phytogeographic origin (native or endemic). Although the endemic category represents a subset of the native category, it provides different information, highlighting that a great proportion of the useful Chilean flora only exists in one place of the world.

Finally, plants were grouped into 14 use categories according to the mode they are used as follows: construction (plants that serve as raw material for home construction), cosmetic (plants used for skin and hair care, as well as to maintain personal hygiene), detergent (plants that contain substances capable of removing fats or organic materials), dye (plants from which natural dyes are obtained for textile application), veterinary (plants used to treat diseases or conditions in domestic animals), edible (plants used for human consumption), fodder (plants consumed by domestic animals, mainly cattle), fuel (plants used to start and maintain fire for heating purposes), handicraft (plants that serve as raw material for the production of objects or products), magic-religious (plants used in incense, witchcraft, blessings and curses, as well as those with symbolic and religious value), medicinal (plants used to treat diseases, conditions and injuries in humans), psychotropic (plants that induce altered states of consciousness), woody (plants used for the construction of buildings, transportation, furniture and other elements) and others (includes those uses that do not match the categories described above; for example, tannery, hunting tools, mordants).

Data were collected for the sixteen administrative regions of Chile (South America), with the highest number of useful species reported for south-central Chile: Maule (376 species), Biobío (375), Valparaíso (359) and Araucanía (357) Regions. The use categories that reported the largest number of records were medicinal, edible and fodder, both at the species level (Fig. 1) and the administrative regions of Chile (Fig. 2). Although using administrative regions to describe geographic coverage restricts statistical analyses, Fig. 2 provides a general overview of the geographic distribution of useful plants in Chile. Herbarium data are currently being collected to accurately assess geographic distribution patterns of useful flora in Chile and will be included in future database updates.

Figure 1.  

Number of reports for each of the 14 use categories, ordered from highest to lowest values.

Figure 2.  

Number of reports by use categories for each administrative region of Chile.

-17.50 and -55.98 Latitude; -71.32 and -73.52 Longitude.

The database includes 1380 use records from 736 vascular plant species native to Chile, belonging to 399 genera from 128 families (Suppl. material 2). The most species-rich families are Asteraceae (120 species), Fabaceae (46), Poaceae (41), Apiaceae (28), Solanaceae (23) and Cactaceae (22) (Table 1). The genera containing the highest number of useful species are Adesmia (18 species), Baccharis (12), Azorella (11), Senecio (11) and Berberis (10) (Table 2). According to our database, the species having the greatest number of uses are Aristotelia chilensis (Molina) Stuntz (8 records), Azorella compacta Phil. (8), Chusquea quila Kunth (7), Gevuina avellana Molina (7), Laurelia sempervirens (Ruiz & Pav.) Tul. (7), Nothofagus obliqua (Mirb.) Oerst. (7), Prosopis chilensis (Molina) Stuntz emend. Burkart (7) and Tessaria absinthioides (Hook. & Arn.) DC. (7) (Table 3). In the online version, photographs are currently provided for 340 species, although this aspect is continuously developing.