Background and aims

: Jesuit documentary sources constitute an important body of information in colonial studies. Among them, the “Materia Médica Misionera” of Montenegro constitutes one of the earliest Jesuit works related to medicinal plants. However, there are few scientific works that relate the information contained in this work with the plant species mentioned there. The objective of the present work is to identify the ethnospecies of the “Materia Médica Misionera” discussing the identifications tith the existing bibliography and relating it to other Jesuit works.

M&M

: The plants were identified using various scientific publications (flora catalogs, ethnobotanical works, and systematics, among others) as well as field observations.

Results

: Were surveyed: 204 ethnotaxa (111 ethnospecies, most of them with ethnovarieties) corresponding to 176 botanical taxa (123 at specific level, 36 at generic level, 27 at family level, 4 doubtful and 14 indeterminate) included in 48 botanical families; being the Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Myrtaceae and Lamiaceae, the most represented.

Conclusions

: Undoubtedly, this work constitutes a document of great deal of importance for various Ibero-American scientific disciplines, in which the identification of plants is an indispensable instance.