Plants used as medicinal in Güémez, Tamaulipas, north-eastern Mexico

The use of medicinal plants in Mexico has a diverse and deeply-rooted tradition concerning. Plants play an important role in traditional medicine among the inhabitants of Guemez, Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico. With the aim of obtaining quantitative information on the plants and their uses as medicinal sources, semi-structured interviews with 113 local residents were taken. In addition, Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) and Use Value (UV) were calculated. A total of 85 species of medicinal plants belonging to 44 families were identified. The most common families were Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Euphorbiaceae. The most used part of the plant was the leaf and the most frequent preparation method was boiling, preparing as an infusion. A total of 50 medicinal uses were registered. Fever had highest ICF (0.93), whereas, according to UV, the most important plants were Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt., Mentha spicata L., Matricaria recutita L. and Achillea millefolium L. The information generated strengthens traditional knowledge, bringing new species and uses to the country´s records for future phytochemical studies that could lead to new medicines.