New CEF paper reveals the legacy of the Christian missionaries to the knowledge of wild medicinal plants in Angola

“Ethnobotany in Angola: The contribution of late 19th century Christian missionaries to the knowledge of medicinal wild plants” is the first article by José João Tchamba, a PhD student in the ForEco group at the Forest Research Centre (CEF), with the collaboration of supervisors João Neves Silva (CEF), Maria Manuel Romeiras (Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food – LEAF) and Luís Catarino (Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes – cE3c), as well as cE3c researchers Maria Cristina Duarte and Sílvia Catarino.

The Huíla Mission, founded by missionaries of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit at the end of the 19th century, in addition to its religious function, was important in the exploration of biodiversity and natural resources in southern Angola, namely by Fathers José Maria Antunes and Eugène Dekindt.

Fig. 2. A) Priest José Maria Antunes (Painting at the Casa Provincial of Portuguese Province of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, reproduced with permission); B) Photograph of a representative herbarium specimen collected Antunes and Dekindt, including ethnobotanical information (LISC herbarium).

The main aim of this study was to unveil the ethnobotanical legacy of José Maria Antunes and Eugène Dekindt, priests of the first Catholic mission in Huíla (Angola) and shed light on their contribution to the knowledge of medicinal wild plants of the country, including information on the uses, plant parts used, and preparation methods documented in the late 19th century.

Based on the information available in manuscripts and on the study of botanical collections preserved in herbaria of Portugal and Angola, the authors extracted relevant information about the species used in traditional medicine by the rural population of Huíla, the health conditions treated, and the mode of preparation and application.

Fig. 6. Leaves, flowers, and fruits of medicinal plants reported by Antunes and Dekindt: (A) Combretum hereroense; (B) Bridelia scleroneura subsp. angolensis; (C) Diplorhynchus condylocarpon; (D) Croton gratissimus; (E) Pterocarpus angolensis; (F) Dichrostachys cinerea; (G) Strychnos cocculoides; and (H) Euclea divinorum (photos by L. Catarino).

The findings highlight the presence of unique medicinal resources in Angola, especially among endemic species, which hold the potential to improve the quality of life of rural communities. Moreover, the research underscores the lack of knowledge of medicinal species, emphasizing the risk of losing valuable historical information.

This article is the result of collaboration between researchers from CEF, LEAF, cE3c and Instituto Superior de Ciências da Educação da Huíla, and also included the collaboration of the Missionaries of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

The article “Ethnobotany in Angola: The contribution of late 19th century christian missionaries to the knowledge of medicinal wild plants” was published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, in open access, and can be read here.