Resumen
- The traditional knowledge about plants used in ethnomedicine was generated from millenary praxis and transmitted orally between generations. In this review, we summarize the information reported in ethnobotanical studies of the tropical Andes region to recognize the importance of plants in medicinal treatments and their role in the Andean worldview. The broad traditional knowledge in Andean communities is the ancestral, collective and integral knowledge that allows the use and bioprospecting of biodiversity. The Andean region represents a highly diverse area in terms of culture and plant species; subsequently, the use of medicinal plants diff ers enormously among and within countries. Andean communities found in plants the treatment of some health and spiritual disorders. Interestingly, some plants showed potential properties that could be deeply investigated, e.g. cancer prevention or treatment. Two millenary and sacred Andean plant species are described in detail due to their potential in medicinal treatments, Chenopodium quinoa Willd. and Erythroxylum sp. The Andes region has a great wealth of knowledge concerning biological and cultural diversity that should be explored, used and conserved.