Important medicinal plants from traditional ecological knowledge: the case La Rosita community of Puerto Colombia (Atlantico, Colombia)

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) associated with the use of medicinal plants has been vital to numerous communities around the world. Nowadays, medicinal plants continue to be of great cultural importance and represent a viable option for health care in local communities. This study was conducted Colombian Caribbean region, particularly in the La Rosita neighborhood of the municipality of Puerto Colombia, with the purpose of collecting ethnobotanical information associated with the medicinal uses that the inhabitants give to the plants. For the analysis of ethnobotanical data, the cultural importance (CI) index was calculated. TEK of medicinal plants contributed to healing practices of the municipality of Puerto Colombia because during the decades the inhabitants have been able to verify the effectiveness of these plants in the treatment of diseases. However most of the medicinal species used are not non-native. Our results show the urgency of developing research that contributes to the documentation and analysis of ethnobotanical information and makes the importance of TEK as a cultural service of ecosystems visible.