Chilean Plants as a Source of Polyphenols - Natural Antioxidants and Biocides from Wild Medicinal Plants - page 116

8 Chilean Plants as a
Source of Polyphenols

Carolina Fredes* and Gloria Montenegro
Facultad de Agronomía e Ingeniería Forestal, Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

8.1 Traditional Uses of Native
Medicinal Plants from Chile

2002; Jagtenberg and Evans, 2003; Molares
and Ladio, 2009).
In the early 1990s a group of experts
convened by the Chilean Health Ministry
reported that the use of local medicinal
herbs lacked appropriate technical defini-
tions to differentiate between medicinal
plants and herbal teas, and that there were
significant deficiencies in their production
process. Following this, a multidisciplinary
group of both public and private advocates
created the first registry of medicinal plants
used empirically by the Chilean population.
Only 28% of these plants had any scientific
validation (Minsal, 2009). Since 2007 The
Chilean Health Ministry (Minsal, 2007,
2008) has approved two lists (103 species)
of plants that are considered traditional
herbal medicines (THM). This regulation
requires that product labels include the
term used by popular custom, as part of cul-
tural tradition. Moreover, manufacturers are
obliged to designate the properties of their
products, as these lists are recognized as
official. Table 8.1 outlines Chilean medici-
nal plants, the parts used and their effects,
in order to analyse compounds that could be
responsible for these medicinal effects.
Many common names of plants described
in Table 8.1 derive from Mapudungun (the

The Chilean flora represents an important
genetic resource, especially considering its
high degree of endemism. Central Chile is
considered a biodiversity hotspot (Myers
et al ., 2000). Of the 5105 higher plants that
form part of the Chilean flora, 45.8% are
endemic (Marticorena, 1990).
The native flora was used by pre-
Hispanic inhabitants for various purposes,
such as food, fuel, religious ceremonies,
decoration, dyeing and medicine. The tradi-
tion of using plants for medicinal purposes
by native populations in Chile was recorded
in the archives of the settlers who, in turn,
enriched them with the contribution of
medicinal plants from Europe and other
regions (Massardo and Rossi, 1996). Naturist
medicine topics show that the medicinal
use of plants native to Chile covers a wide
spectrum of disease and healing practices
(Rozzi and Massardo, 1994a,b). This knowl-
edge, based on ethnobotany and ethno-
pharmacology, has been recognized both
nationally and internationally during the
last three decades by many authors (Montes
and Wilkomirsky, 1987; Graham et al ., 2000;
Muñoz et al ., 2001; Evans, 2002; Montenegro,

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