Animal remedies in the folk medical practices of the upper part of the Lucca and Pistoia Provinces, Central Italy

Summary An ethno/zoopharmacognostic survey on the remedies used in the folk medicine of the Lucca and Pistoia Provinces, Tuscany, central Italy, was carried out. In many rural areas the elderly still retain much valuable knowledge of local medicine, but these practices are almost completely abandoned today. Cobwebs, fresh urines, honey, various milk derivatives, and animal parts (liver, fat, blood, meat) have frequently been used in the local traditional medicinal practices. In particular, cheese and meat preparations were considered as food medicine for different conditions; as preventives, or to treat minor ailments. Some of these remedies have the same prescriptions as those described in several old historical medical texts, suggesting interaction between official and popular medicinal practices in the past. However some prescriptions appear to be original. Although today much is known about the phytochemistry and phytopharmacology of many traditional plant remedies, real bio-scientific evaluations of remedies of animal origin are still quite rare in the literature. Therefore, further studies following this direction could be very valuable in confirming the therapeutic usefulness of a few of these remedies. Keywords: