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During 2012, 30 herbal doctors in Belize, Central America, each viewed 50 plant specimens with reported medicinal value. Each participant was asked to provide a plant name and a medicinal use to identify species used to treat women’s and children’s health issues. Chi-square tests indicated that knowing a name and knowing a use were associated (p < 0.05). Participant gender was not independent of knowing a name or a use. The age of a participant was not independent of knowing a name but was independent of knowing a use. The district of residence was independent of knowing either name or use. Based on model selection by Akaike information criterion, gender was the best fit model for knowing a plant name. For use, gender, district, and the null model (participant only) had equal goodness of fit. Reports of use were partitioned into 23 usage categories. Six categories had high informant consensus (>0.65). From the categories with high consensus, five species had been previously reported for similar uses in relevant studies. |
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