Origin of medicinal plants and knowledge of their use, Montserrat, West Indies

Both the origin of plant species used medicinally on Montserrat, West Indies, and the origin of Montserratian folk medicinal knowledge are examined in this study. This study is based on data collected during several field trips, using multiple interviews, and specimen collection. Other information came from archival sources. Information on the medicinal uses of 183 plant species was obtained, of which 178 species were identified. Of the identified species, 72 percent are native to the New World but not necessarily to Montserrat, specifically. Dates and circumstances of the introduction into the island of alien plants that then became part of the current pharmacopoeia are examined. Only 25 alien species entered the Montserratian pharmacopoeia after 1700 despite considerable general plant movement. Modern plant use is examined for continuity of use through time by using surrogate colonial-era data primarily from other British West Indian islands, and colonial herbals. Data for plant origins, Montserratian folk medicinal use of plants, and the colonial-era use of the same or similar plants are presented at length in the Appendices. The study shows that Montserratian folk medicine is a creolized folk knowledge that contains contributions particularly from Amerindians, Europeans, and Africans. The most enduring contribution to Montserrat's pharmacopoeia is that of English folk medicine of the colonial era, particularly that of the seventeenth to mid-eighteenth centuries. This study therefore challenges the popular and sometimes scholarly claims of an African derivation of both medicinal plants and folk medicinal knowledge in the West Indies and examines the social context of such claims. Changes in the Montserratian use of medicinal plants are emphasized and examined in relation to past and present disease environment and the globalization of folk medicine.