Traditional Medicine Among the Nahua: Contemporary and Ancient Medicinal Plants

Introduction

This research was carried out from May to July 2005 in northern Veracruz, in the Nahua village of Amatlán, which is in the municipality of Ixhuatlán de Madero, approximately two hundred kilometers north of the Cazones River (see Figure 1, below).

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There are marked differences between the mountainous and the coastal areas and between the irrigation and temporal zones of the area (Ruvalcaba Mercado 1998a, 1998b). Many rivers, such as the Vinazco, Moctezuma, and Tamuín flow from the Sierra Madre mountains towards the Gulf of México, providing abundant water to the region. However, during certain drier months of the year there are many areas around Amatlán that receive almost no water at all, either from the streams or from rainfall. Though this region has traditionally been associated with steep hills and deep valleys, the area where Amatlán is found is characterized by rolling hills and plains.

The high rainfall during the wet season has given rise to dense tropical forest in the lower areas and temperate oak-ash forest in the highlands (Chamoux 1987; Escobar Ohmstede 1998; Farfán Morales 1988; Oliver Vega 1988; Sandstrom 1978), which has led to a high biodiversity of plants and animals (Villaseñor, Ibarra, and Ocaña 1998). There are approximately six hundred species of medicinal plants that have been recorded for the region (Avendaño Reyes 1994). Some of the plants that are found in this area include avocado (Persea americana), ceiba (Ceiba pentandra), papaya (Carica papaya), datura (Datura candida), different types of gourds (Crescentia alata), bamboo (Arthrostylidium racemiflorum), mahogany (Swietenia humilis), guava (Psidium guajava), chilies (Capsicum spp.), among many others. These are all domesticated plants, though many of them are found in the remaining forest; most of them have been modified by the people and are grown in their home gardens. In fact, those that are found in the secondary forest, such as mahogany, ceiba, and bamboo, are edge species and indicators of long-term human disturbance (Anna C. Roosevelt, personal communication 2005).

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