Traditional ethnobotanical knowledge and use of medicinal plants in a rural area of the metropolitan region of Chile: descriptive study

In order to characterize and evaluate the botanical knowledge belonging to the population in rural area (little addressed by the ethnobotany) a study was conducted through surveys to learn about medicinal plants cultivated and used and a rural area of the Metropolitan Region (San Juan de Pirque). The conclusions are that users have a hybrid knowledge (product of traditional knowledge combined with information of various kinds) of medicinal plants. We found that most of the species cultivated in botanical gardens were species introduced and very few native ones. Also, they were known by their common names and new names were detected not described previously in the literature.