PLANTAS MEDICINALES USADAS EN ALGUNAS VEREDAS DE MUNICIPIOS DEL ALTIPLANO DEL ORIENTE ANTIOQUEÑO, COLOMBIA/MEDICINAL PLANTS USED IN SOME TOWNSHIPS OF MUNICIPALITIES IN THE HIGH PLAINS OF EASTERN ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA

With the aim of knowing and determining the relative importance of local medicinal plants, an ethnobotanical study was conducted in the farming communities of some townships in six municipalities of the high plains of eastern Antioquia: El Carmen de Viboral, El Retiro, Guarne, La Ceja, Marinilla, and Rionegro, in a region within the lower mountain humid rainforest life zone. Information was compiled on both wild and cultivated medicinal plants that were introduced during the conquest or colonial period and whose use is very ingrained in the communities in this region. With information provided by 17 informants from the different townships, 254 plant species used for medicinal purposes in the high plains of eastern Antioquia were registered from 193 genera belonging to 79 families. This study represents a contribution to the knowledge of the medicinal flora of Colombia and the recovery of traditional knowledge on the use of medicinal plants.