Reminescences
The Remedies of the Folk Medicine of the Croatians Living in Ćićarija, Northern Istria
Andrea Pieroni
Maria Elena Giusti
Abstract
An ethnobotanical field study was conducted among the Croatians living in ]i}arija in northern Istria and a very restricted
folk pharmacopoeia (of approximately only 30 remedies) was recorded. This finding suggests that a remarkable
process of erosion of Traditional Knowledge (TK) may have taken place. The collected data were compared with the
ethnobotanical findings of a field study previously conducted among the Istro-Romanians living in the nearby village of
@ejane, who probably migrated there around the 14th Century. It was found that more than half of the botanical taxa
were being used medicinally across the two communities, and that approximately one third of the actual medicinal plant
uses were recorded in both communities. Correspondence analysis carried out comparing the same data with those of the
ethnobotanical literature of Istria and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in North-Eastern Italy showed that the folk phytotherapy of
the diverse ethnic populations living in multi-cultural Istria appears to be very similar.
Keywords
ethnobotany; folk medicine; ethnomedicine; Istria; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
27201
URI
Publication date:
7.7.2008.
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