1. Background
Ethnobotany is the study of the utilitarian relationship between human beings and vegetation in their environment, including medicinal uses [1]. Its importance lies in the fact that in addition to contributing to knowledge and conservation of features of ancestral popular culture, it opens up the possibility of finding new uses for medicinal plants, and can serve to discover new medicines derived from plants [2].
For this study, an interdisciplinary research team was set up, between the Department of Plant Biology (Botany) and the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology (Pharmacognosy) of the University of Navarra, Spain. The project was started in 2003 and it was intended to reverse the trend towards fragmentation in research groups [3,4], in order to achieve a deeper knowledge of the plants used in Navarre's traditional medicine, their active principles, composition and therapeutic use; this is the context in which the research project concerning the Pyrenean region has been carried out.
The Pyrenees are a mountain range, of 435 km in length from east to west, which divides the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe. It presents a great variety of climates and soils, which in turn produce a rich ecology and flora (3500 taxa in total [5], an important figure when read in relation to the 7500 species that have been catalogued in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands as a whole, among the highest rates in Europe [6]). It is a relatively small territory which has nonetheless seen the survival of six different languages from different cultural traditions and has attracted the attention of many explorers and botanists throughout the centuries. After touring its landscapes and villages, these explorers and botanists reported their findings [7,8]. However, ethnobotanical studies began in earnest about two decades ago, when research groups in this field were first established on the Iberian Peninsula [9-40]. In fact, ethnobotanical research in the Pyrenees has been carried out only in some regions of the Eastern and Central areas [6,41-49]; with regard to the Western area, only a few divulgative publications about medicinal flora or edible plants have appeared, but these studies were not produced using an ethnobotanical methodology [50-55].
Study area
The Navarre Pyrenees area, approximately 2200 km2, is situated in the north-east of Navarra and in the south-western part of the Pyrenees (Figure 1). It is a mountainous region with acute unevenness of terrain (from 245 metres over sea-level to 2428 metres at the summit of its highest mountain). The area has a mild oceanic climate in its northern part which shifts to a submediterranean climate type as one moves to the southern areas of Navarre [56]; this fact makes it different from other Pyrenean regions (Central and Eastern Pyrenees), which exhibit a basically Mediterranean climate [57]. Lithology is varied: limestone mountains dating from the Upper Cretaceous Era rise out of valleys which are composed mainly of Palaeozoic and Eocene flysch (Tertiary Era), with marls and limestone marls from the Mid and Upper Eocene Era towards the western fringe [58].
All this produces a distinctive flora consisting of about 1822 taxa [7], including the species of the adjacent Pyrenean regions. Forests such as those of Fagus sylvatica L. and of Quercus humilis L. are plentiful, as well as of Pinus sylvestris L., Acer opalus Miller, Buxus sempervirens L., Lonicera etrusca G. Santi, Viburnum lantana L., of various species of the Rosa genus [59], and of endemic species such as Campanula ficarioides Timb.-Lagr. ssp. orhyi, Alchemilla iratiana S.E Fröhner or Euphorbia pyrenaica Jord, among others. [7].
Given its biological and cultural richness, the region currently enjoys a good variety of protected areas: 3 integral reservation zones, 8 natural reservation zones, 14 locations proposed as Sites of Community Interest (SCIs) within the Natura network, and 11 flower areas introduced by Blanco [60] in his areas of botanical interest (such as the Irati forest, one of the most important beech woods in Europe), along with a further 31 zones under diverse forms of biological protection.
In the seven valleys of the Navarre Pyrenees human settlement dates back 7,000 years, as has been proven by archaeological findings in the Aizpea Cave [61]. The first inhabitants in the region, the Vascones, were influenced by several cultures that sought to settle in this territory as well, such as the Romans and the Visigoths. Nowadays, the population in this area lives in small villages and houses scattered across the hills and valleys. They earn a living through cattle raising, hand-made exploitation of forests and the cultivation of a variety of vegetables for consumption. Yet, these activities have been reduced in the shift towards computer and service industries and because of emigration to large centres of population. Despite the fact that cultural traditions have remained well-rooted in the region, only 10% of the population speaks 'Euskara', the language of the Basque ethnic group; the percentage of Euskara speakers was higher at other times in recent history (18th and 19th centuries) [50], a fact which influences different aspects of the present culture, including ethnobotany.
All these biotic and cultural factors, and the need for a scientific review of the pharmacology of the Navarre Pyrenees, constitute the primary motive of this study, whose objectives are:
-to compile an ethnobotanical and medical catalogue of the Navarre Pyrenean Region;
-to perform a quantitative analysis of the results and to compare it with other ethnobotanical studies of the Pyrenees region;
-to carry out a review of the drugs used within the community through study of the monographs published by WHO, ESCOP and the E Commission of the German Department of Health, institutions responsible for the safety and efficacy of medicinal plants, in order to assess the official validity of the pharmacology of the Navarre Pyrenees.
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