•  doi: 10.1155/2018/6849317
• Published online 2018 Mar 14

Monika Kujawska

Abstract

The use of medicinal plants mixed with yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) has been poorly studied in the ethnopharmacological literature so far. The Paraguayan Mestizo people have the longest tradition of using the yerba mate beverage, apart from the indigenous Guarani people. This study analyses the role of yerba mate and medicinal plants in the treatment of illnesses within Paraguayan folk medicine. The research was conducted among 100 Paraguayan migrants living in Misiones, Argentina, in 2014 and 2015. Yerba mate is not considered to be a medicinal plant by its own virtues but is culturally a very important type of medicinal plant intake. Ninety-seven species are employed in hot and cold versions of the yerba mate beverage. The most important species are as follows: Allophylus edulis (highest number of citations), Aristolochia triangularis (highest relative importance value), and Achyrocline flaccida and Achyrocline tomentosa (highest score by Index of Agreement on Species). The plants are used in the treatment of 18 medicinal categories, which include illnesses traditionally treated with plants: digestive system, humoral medicine, and relatively new health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and high levels of cholesterol. Newly incorporated medicinal plants, such as Moringa oleifera, are ingested predominantly or exclusively with the mate beverage.

1. Introduction

Yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis A.St.-Hil., Aquifoliaceae) is a native tree growing in the subtropics of South America, present in Southern Brazil, Northeastern Argentina, Eastern Paraguay, and Uruguay [1]. The yerba mate beverage has been consumed traditionally by Guarani indigenous people since before the conquest of South America by the Spaniards [2]. The commercial potential of this plant was discovered by the Jesuits, who brought wild growing yerba mate into cultivation. Pedro de Montenegro, a Jesuit monk, in his Materia Medica Misionera described the use of the most important species for the Guarani people, in which yerba mate appeared on the top of the list [3]. The Guarani name for yerba mate is ka’a which means “a plant” or “a herb”; hence yerba mate has been considered by this group as the plant par excellence [3]. Yerba mate was also known as Jesuit tea or Paraguayan tea and shipped as such to Europe [2]. With the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1768, the plantations went wild. By this time, the yerba mate beverage was already popular among Mestizo people (of Spanish and Guarani origin). Since the end of the 19th century, it also became a daily beverage for the European migrants who partly colonized Southern Brazil, Northeastern Argentina, and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Paraguay [4]. Nowadays yerba mate is consumed at the rate of more than one litre per day by millions of people in the above-mentioned countries [4, 5]. It plays a very special social role and constitutes a very important form of caffeine intake [2, 4, 5]. Its popularity is also increasing outside South America due to its pharmacological properties, proven to be beneficial to health [4, 6, 7]. It is also a very important drink in Syria and Lebanon due to Syro-Lebanese migration to Argentina in the second half of the 19th century. Many migrants who returned to the Levant in the 1920s took the habit of drinking mate with them [8, 9].

Over the last 20 years there has been an increase in studies of the pharmacologic properties of Ilex paraguariensis, which have been reviewed [4, 6, 7, 10]. Numerous active compounds have been identified in yerba mate. Phenolic compounds predominate caffeoyl derivatives (caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid) [11, 12], xanthines (caffeine and theobromine), which are a class of purine alkaloids found in many other plants such as tea and coffee, flavonoids (quercetin, kaempferol, and rutin), and tannins [7]. Numerous triterpenoid saponins have also been identified, including those derived from ursolic acids known as metasaponins [4, 7]. Saponins are responsible for the distinct flavour of yerba mate extracts [7]. Yerba mate also contains minerals (P, Fe, and Ca) and vitamins (C, B1, and B2) [13].

Research on extracts and isolated compounds from yerba mate has provided a number of pharmacological applications. Studies have demonstrated that yerba mate leaves have antioxidant [11], antiobesity [14, 15], antidiabetic, digestive improvement and cardiovascular properties [16, 17], and chemopreventative ones (preventing cellular damage that may cause chronic diseases) [18]. The consumption of yerba mate infusion reduces LDL-cholesterol in parallel with an increase in HDL-cholesterol, as observed in studies on humans [19]. Yerba mate extract also reduces acute lung inflammation, as observed in the animal model [4]. Antimicrobial activity of Ilex paraguariensis has been recently studied as well [20].

Some ethnobotanical studies from the south cone of South America report medicinal uses of yerba mate beverage [21, 22]. Few ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies mention that various medicinal plants are consumed together with the yerba mate beverage by Mestizo and European migrants living in Argentina and Paraguay [23–26]. However, very little is known about how medicinal plants are combined with yerba mate beverage by local people. Additionally, medicinal plant use by Paraguayan Mestizo people is poorly documented in the English-language scientific literature, with very few exceptions [23, 26–30]. The documentation of medicinal plants and analysis of traditional knowledge related to the yerba mate beverage by Paraguayan Mestizo people is of paramount importance for two reasons: (1) apart from indigenous Guarani peoples, they have the longest tradition of using yerba mate and mixing it with medicinal plants; (2) The Paraguayan people are described in the literature as knowledgeable about medicinal plants [30, 31]. Nearly 80% of the population of Paraguay consume medicinal plants on a daily basis [30]. However, the relationship between traditional uses and pharmaceutical properties is poorly studied.

The objectives of this contribution were to (1) document and analyse the role of yerba mate in prophylaxis and treatment by Paraguayan Mestizo people; (2) evaluate the role of medicinal plants in yerba mate beverages, and (3) describe the scope of illnesses treated with yerba mate beverage and medicinal plants. Additionally, two questions guided my research and analysis: (1) Does any pattern exist showing that particular illnesses are treated with a hot version of yerba mate beverage and others with a cold one? (2) How receptive is this traditional mode of plant administration to new health challenges and new medicinal plants, previously unknown to the Paraguayan people?

Reference:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872613/