"Cow Healers Use It for Both Horses and Cattle": The Rise and Fall of the Ethnoveterinary Use of Peucedanum ostruthium (L.) Koch (fam. Apiaceae) in Sweden

Sammanfattning

Masterwort, Peucedanum ostruthium (L.) Koch, is an Apiaceae species originally native to the mountain areas of central and southern Europe. Written sources show that it was used in northern Europe. This study explores the cultivation history of masterwort and its past use in Sweden. Although only few details are known about the history of this taxon, it represents a cultural relict plant of an intentionally introduced species known in Sweden as early as the Middle Ages. In Sweden, the masterwort was mainly used as an ethnoveterinary herbal remedy from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. However, medicinal manuals, pharmacopoeias and some ethnographical records indicate that it was once also used in remedies for humans. Today, this species remains as a living biocultural heritage in rural areas, especially on the surviving shielings, which were once used as mountain pastures in Dalecarlia, and at former crofts that were inhabited by cattle owners in the forest areas of southern Sweden.

Nyckelord

cultural relict plants; herbal remedies; historical ethnobotany; living biocultural heritage; silvopastoral system

Publicerad i

Plants
2023, Volym: 12, nummer: 1, artikelnummer: 116

SLU författare

• de Vahl, Erik

  • Institutionen för landskapsarkitektur, planering och förvaltning, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen

SDG15 Ekosystem och biologisk mångfald


UKÄ forskningsämne

Trädgårdsvetenskap/hortikultur
Etnologi
Botanik


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12010116

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/120466