Abstract

CASQUILHO, José Pinto  and  XAVIER, José Sabino. Fitodiversidade em Timor-Leste: lista de plantas medicinais associadas a práticas tradicionais. RILP [online]. 2019, vol.35, pp.103-132.  Epub July 29, 2021. ISSN 2182-4452.  https://doi.org/10.31492/2184-2043.rilp2018.35/pp.103-132.

This work presents a set of about 130 plant species that can be considered associated with traditional phytotherapeutic practices in Timor-Leste. Traditional practices, in addition to their pragmatic injunction and associative bond, rooted in the concept of the word tetun lulik - meaning, in general, sacred or holy - which in the region of the islands near Indonesia is expressed in the term adat or tradition, and which can still be related to the concept of taboo, dominant in Polynesia. Plants are used by matan-dook healers in simple or compound recipes, including the prescription of mantras and prayers. The set of species herein presented, entails a synthesis of previously done works, as well as a verbal inquiry into 45 healers in the cities of Dili and Baucau, and becomes a work base for an ongoing research, which aims to more accurately identify phytotherapeutic components and processes in Timor-Leste, as well as its contribution to the more general problem of biodiversity conservation and cultural identity in the young Southeast Asian country, considered by several authors as part of a biodiversity hotspot.

Keywords : healer; phytodiversity; phytotherapy; lulik; matan-dook; Timor-Leste.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )