America Latina – Italia: innovazione nella tradizione dell’etnofarmacopea per il futuro sostenibile
Grandi Maurizio, Baiocchi Claudio, Ballati Arianna
La Torre di Maurizio Grandi
CUCS22 Napoli, 21-22-23 Aprile 2022
PROPOSAL
Corso di Alta Formazione in Antropologia della Salute nei Sistemi Complessi : https://www.la-torre.it/landing-corso-2021
Corso di Alta Formazione in Antropologia e Scienze della Pace: in partenza in prossimo anno.
We propose study and research projects on herbal therapeutic activities, geographical and anthropological analysis, materials collection, species protection, extraction, purification and concentration of active ingredients, respecting the balsamic period (the moment in the plant clycle when the maximum production of the active ingredient occurs). Plant-derived substances used in past epidemics represent our archaeoethno-pharmacological research. Anthropological, ethnobotanical, interdisciplinary mapping to understand
1) the active principles secreted by the plant and the secondary
metabolites
2) how “Uomini-medicina”, in their instinctive and biomimetic search
for cures, have selected and extracted from the plant world.
Long before the term 'secondary metabolites' was coined, plant defence was identified as Hyper Sensitivity
Resistance to Viruses. In experimental models, this defence is established 33 to 36 hours after interaction,
the latency time required for the genetic synthesis of the antiviral product (enzymes, proteins, etc.). The
enzymes generated catalyse the production of metabolites involved in resistance. Enzymes with direct
activity:
-hydrolase, chitinase, gluyconase
-protease inhibitors, polygalacturonase
-pathogenesis related proteins (PR)
Barrier enzymes (biofilms):
-polysaccharides (callose, polyglucans)
-aromatic metabolites (cinnamic acid substitutes and its polymerisation, with lignin deposition)
Many of the human body’s powerful reactions are a direct response to plant alkaloids, a class of chemical compounds most common in tropical plants. 4000 species belonging to 350 families produce alkaloids. These molecules have had a major impact onevery culture if not every person on the planet. Alkaloids are characterized by a molecular structure that must include a nitrogen atom and at least two carbon atoms.
The bitterness was frequently a clue for people the world-over that a plant had therapeutic properties.
COOPERATION
Collaboration, interchange among students and academic staff, to encourage participation in laboratory and internship initiatives and teaching activities, also in collaboration and with the support of other public or private bodies. Study, research and teaching experiences will be directed towards the disciplinary areas of Chemistry, Physics, Ethnopharmacology, Ethnobotany, Ethnomedicine, Social,
Cultural and Ecological Anthropology.
We are defining exchange agreements and projects of mutual collaboration with :
• Fortaleza (UFC: Federal University of Cearà),
• São Paulo (FFLCH-UPS: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas
Universidade de São Paulo),
• Belém (UFPA: Federal University of Pará); with the University of Costa Rica
“The Open University”,
• Peruvian Institute for Natural Products Research,
• Dipartimento di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Perugia ,
• Salesian Polytechnic University of Ecuador (UPS).
Back to the future: monastic gardens and Rivierà.
