The fruits of the Argentine Northeast in the “Materia Medica Misionera” publication by Jesuit Pedro Montenegro

Abstract

Jesuit missionaries (17-18th centuries) not only played a very important role in the introduction of exotic plants from various places of the world, but also in the dissemination of knowledge, medicine and healing practices among the missions in Paraguay and in the rest of the New and Old World. However, the scientific research dealing with the identification of these plants, both native and introduced, is scarce and scattered. The goal of this study was to identify local fruit trees cited in the “Materia Medica Misionera” publication from 2009 by Jesuit Pedro de Montenegro of the mentioned work, as well as to discuss some aspects related to the difficulties of this identification task. The methodology used was historical ethnobotany. Starting with Montenegros’ work, local fruit trees were identified using descriptions and accompanying sheets of the author that were compared with the scientific literature. Twelve ethnogenera and thirty one ethnospecies belonging to the botanical families Arecaceae, Bromeliaceae, Caricaceae, Fabaceae, Myrtaceae, Musaceae, and Passifloraceae, were identified.