Abstract
Reports from native informants backed with voucher plant specimens were obtained in a 1969–1970 field study on the Bahama islands of Great Exuma, Little Exuma and Long Island. Over 130 plant species of some 60 families are used within this culture for a wide variety of medicinal purposes. Pertinent background material and personal observations during field work indicated that knowledge of “bush medicine” is fading. The information recorded includes common names of each medicinal plant, uses, and preparations. A systematic list cross-referenced with common names is provided.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Literature Cited
Bayley, Iris. 1949. The bush-teas of Barbados. J. Barbados Mus. Histor. Soc.16: 103–113.
Beckwith, Martha Warren. 1927. Notes on Jamaican ethnobotany. Vassar College Field-work in Folk-lore. Publications of the Folk-lore Foundation, No. 8, Poughkeepsie. 47 pp.
Bounds, John Howard. 1966. Land use in the Bahamas. Ph. D. Thesis. Univ. Tennessee. 419 pp.
Britton, Nathaniel Lord, and Charles Frederick Millspaugh. 1920. The Bahama Flora. New York Botanical Garden. Reprint edition, 1962. Hafner Publishing Co., New York. 662 pp.
BusinessWeek. 1973. International Business. Bahamas: A cold shoulder for a new nation. McGraw-Hill Publishers. 5 May: 2278, 34–35.
Coker, William C, Ph. D. 1905. Vegetation of the Bahama Islands, p. 206–207. In: George Burbank Shattuck (ed.) The Bahama Islands. The MacMillan Co., New York.
Commonwealth of the Bahamas Department of Statistics. 1970. Commonwealth of the Bahamas statistical abstract. 1969. Nassau, Bahamas. 140 pp.
Coombs, Robert, (n.d.). Some Cuban medicinal plants. Contrib. Bot. Dep., Iowa Coll. Agr. and Mech. Arts, No. 5. 20 pp.
Craton, Michael. 1968. A history of the Bahamas. Collins Clear Type Press. London. 291 pp.
Fawcett, William, compiler. 1891. An index to economic products of the vegetable kingdom in Jamaica. Government Printing Establishment. 78 pp.
Gooding, E. G. B. 1940–1942. Facts and beliefs about Barbadian plants. J. Barbados Mus. Histor. Soc.7: 170–174; 8: 32–35; 8: 70–73; 8: 103–106; 8: 194–197; 9: 17–19; 9: 84–88; 9: 126–129; 9: 192–194; 10: 3–6.
Higgs, Mrs. Leslie. 1969. Bush medicine in the Bahamas. Nassau. 20 pp.
Hodge, W. H., and Douglas Taylor. 1957. The ethnobotany of the island Caribs of Dominica. Webbia12: 513–644.
Kingsbury, J. M. 1964. Poisonous plants of the U.S. and Canada. Prentice-Hall, N. J. 626 pp.
Moseley, Mary. 1926. The Bahamas handbook. Nassau Guardian, Nassau. 237 pp.
Nunez-Melendez, E. 1964. Plantas medicinales de Puerto Rico. Estacion Exp. Agr. Univ. Puerto Rico. Bull. 196. 245 pp.
Oakes, A. J., and M. P. Morris. 1958. The West Indian weedwoman of the United States Virgin Islands. Bull. Hist. Med.32 (2): 164–170.
Quarterly Economic Review. The West Indies, Bahamas, Bermuda, British Honduras, and Guyana. Annual Supplement. 1972. The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited. London, p. 49–52.
Rogers, William B. 1967. Household atomism and change in the Out Island Bahamas. Southwestern J. Anthropol.23: 244–260.
Rogers, William B., and Richard E. Gardner. 1969. Linked changes in value and behavior in the Out Island Bahamas. Amer. Anthropol.71: 21–35.
Rolle, Kermit, and Gwen Ellingsen. 1969. Out Island lore. George Dunlap, Ltd., Huntington, New York. 36 pp.
Sawyer, William H. Jr. 1955. Medicinal uses of plants by native Inaguans. Sc. Monthly80: 371–376.
Sharer, Cyrus Jewett. 1955. The population growth of the Bahama Islands. Ph. D. Thesis. Univ. Michigan. 126 pp.
Storer, Dorothy P. 1958. Familiar trees and cultivated plants of Jamaica: a traveler’s guide to names of the common trees, shrubs, vines and crop plants. MacMillan and Co., Ltd., London. 81 pp.
U.S. Department of State Office of Media Services, Bureau of Public Affairs. 1971. Department of State Background Notes, Commonwealth of the Bahama Islands. Dept. of State Publication 8329. Looseleaf. 4 pp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was originally supported by NSF Grant #G5738, an Undergraduate Research Participation Grant in Biology made to Tufts University, and by grants for undergraduate research in biology made by The Hurdle Hill Foundation and the Arnold Bernhard Foundation to Tufts University.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Eldridge, J. Bush medicine in the Exumas and long island, bahamas a field study. Econ Bot 29, 307–332 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02862180
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02862180