Chemical bases for medicinal plant use in Oaxaca, Mexico

Fifty-eight medicinal plants used for the management of reproduction and the treatment of women's reproductive health problems in an indigenous community in southern Mexico are described. The efficacy of these plants is assessed according to both community members' understandings of the therapeutic effects they seek and the standards of conventional Western medicine. The majority of the plants contain chemicals which would appear to enable them to accomplish their intended effects in either or both the popular and the conventional medical systems.