Fidelity Level and Knowledge of Medicinal Plants Used to Make Therapeutic Turkish Baths

Abstract

The value and importance of indigenous knowledge are now being increasingly acknowledged all over the world. For this reason, the aims of this study is not only to identify the medicinal plants used for Therapeutic Turkish Baths by local people of various areas in Turkey, but also to draw attention to the traditional knowledge that is in danger of being lost. In this study, a total of 105 people from twenty-one provinces (N=5) were interviewed. Information was gathered through scientifically guided questionnaires, interviews and general conversations and fidelity level (FL) of species were determined. According to the results of the identification, 42 plants are being used to make Therapeutic Turkish Baths for medicinal purposes in Turkey. Among them 29 plants are wild and 13 plants are cultivated plants. Most used families were Lamiaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Malvaceaeand Poaceae. The category that has the highest FL value is Cucumis sativus(100%) followed by Rosmarinus officinalis(93%). The lowest is Thymus vulgaris(32%). The data obtained from our informants and analyses in the present paper clearly show that folk knowledge on medicinal plants and plant uses is still alive in the studied region.