The Vernacular Names Of The 140 Medicinal Plants Preserved In The Actual Speech Of The Region Of Mascara – Algeria

Résumé: A lot has been said about the medicinal plants in the region of Mascara, both from the therapeutic side and the phytochemical one, but little or almost nothing has been written about the vernacular names of these plants. This paper is divided into two parts: an ethnobotanical and an ethnolinguistic study. The survey was carried out using a questionnaire addressed to the local population to gather data about the vernacular names of these plants as they are manifested in this part of Algeria. The information collected was faithfully transliterated and allowed us to identify 140 plant species belonging to 50 families bearing Tamazight names, or Arabic names, and even local neologisms belonging to the Mascarian dialect. All these results could constitute a database for further studies, and even to preserve this intangible cultural heritage especially that the survey reveals that this ancestral knowledge is essentially based on oral tradition.

Publié dans la revue: مجلة المواقف