BACKGROUND: Ethnobotanical knowledge about the role of plants in fisheries provides valuable ecological information vital for sustainable management of local resources; however, it is diluted and understudied globally. This literature review aims to map the knowledge of plant use within traditional fishing communities.
METHODS: Through the PRISMA method, we identified and selected 34 articles reporting the use of plants in fisheries, and including 344 taxa of plants and algae. Uses of plants and algae were grouped into different categories.
RESULTS: In the novel categorization of fishery-related uses we proposed, the most mentioned were for fishing and building/repair of fishing artifacts and habitat-related uses, while the records of plants related to fiber uses, providing aid in fishing management and species causing problems, were among the least mentioned. Semi-structured interview is most commonly used with local resource users, especially fishery experts, in exploring perceptions on plant use within traditional fishing communities. Diversity was high in all the recorded families, but most were reported locally.
CONCLUSIONS: Ethnobotanical studies with fishers are not common in the documented literature but they provide a large number of use reports. On the basis this review, in most of the world, the information is of a casual and sporadic nature. Fishers can provide information on aquatic plants and algae that create problems and aid in fishing management, which are crucial in understanding the ecosystem of a region experiencing environmental challenges. This knowledge is greatly understudied globally and undergoing a rapid decline, as highlighted in several of the reviewed articles. Thus, further systematic research on fishery-related uses of plants by fisherfolk is needed considering its potential contribution to the sustainable management of fishery resources.

Cancer is the second cause of death in the world and is foreseen to be responsible for about 16 million deaths in 2040. Approximately, 60% of the drugs used to treat cancer are of natural origin. Besides the extensive use of some of these drugs in therapies, such as those derived from the genus Taxus, a significant number of plants have revealed themselves as useful against cancer in recent years. The field of ethnobotany focuses on documenting traditional knowledge associated with plants, constituting a starting point to uncover the potential of new plant-based drugs to treat or prevent, in this case, tumour diseases and side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. From a series of extensive ethnobotanical prospections across the Catalan linguistic area (CLA), we have recorded uses for 41 taxa with antitumour effects. The two most quoted botanical families are Asteraceae and Ranunculaceae, and the most frequently reported species is Ranunculus parnassifolius, a high-mountain species, which is widely collected for this purpose. The reported species have been used to treat an important number of cancer types, focusing on preventive, palliative, and curative uses, as well as to deal with the side effects of conventional treatments. Comparing our results in CLA with previous data available in the most comprehensive databases of pharmacology and a review of cytotoxicity assays revealed that for the several species reported here, there was no previous evidence of traditional uses against cancer. Despite the need for further analyses to experimentally validate the information presented here, combining traditional uses and phylogenetically-informed strategies to phytochemical and pharmacological research would represent new avenues to establish more integrative approaches, hence improving the ability to select new candidate taxa in cancer research.

BACKGROUND: Herbal remedies form an integral part of healing and are considered to be the oldest forms of health care known to mankind. The present study aims to document traditional phytoremedies for the treatment of menstrual disorders in Udhampur district of J&K, India.
METHODS: The informants were interviewed directly and information was gathered about plants used in different menstrual disorders. The data was further analyzed for use-value (UV), factor informant consensus (Fic) and fidelity level (Fl).
RESULTS: In all, 62 informants were interviewed. Most of the informants (66%) were females. The patients prefer female healers over male vaids and hakims. A total of 50 plants were used to cure different menstrual disorders. Seeds were found to be of utmost medicinal importance (43.8%) followed by leaves (20.8%) and fruits (16.7%). Oral administration was observed to be the main mode (90.0%) of intake of medicine. The plants with high use-value were Triticum aestivum (UV=1.76), Taraxacum officinale (UV=1.16), Citrus limon (UV=0.95), Allium cepa (UV=0.79), Cicer arietinum (UV=0.77), Trigonella foenum-graecum (UV=0.66), Rubia manjith (UV=0.56), Ocimum tenuiflorum (UV=0.56) and Oryza sativa (UV=0.52). The various menstrual disorders were classified into 7 categories. The values of Fic varied between 0.96 (dysmenorrhea, itching and foul smell) and 0.92 (menorrhagia). The 100% Fl value was scored by 20 plants. Leucorrhea reported the highest 5 plants with 100% Fl. Nearly 40% of the formulations had two or more plants.
CONCLUSIONS: Plants used for the treatment of different menstrual disorders were documented and analyzed for ethnogynecological problems. The study revealed some plants like Triticum aestivum, Rubia manjith, Dalbergia sissoo, Raphanus sativus, Citrus limon, Allium cepa, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Elettaria cardamomum etc. to be of great importance vis a vis menstrual disorders. Further pharmacological studies of these plants may provide some important drugs for the treatment of common menstrual disorders.