The future is new: Historical versus contemporary medicinal plant knowledge in Jamaica

This study presents the first multi-species diachronic comparison of medicinal plant knowledge in Jamaica. It extends an established species-level historical-contemporary framework in the West Indies. By scaling this approach across species and health categories, the study examines how traditional knowledge adapts over time and contributes to broader discussions of persistence, decline, and emergence of plant knowledge.

To conduct a structured diachronic comparison of medicinal plant use in Jamaica, examining whether the same medicinal species were used for similar health categories across historical and contemporary periods, and identifying patterns of persistence, decline, and emergence.

A diachronic approach compared Jamaican medicinal plant use across two periods. Contemporary ethnobotanical datasets identified culturally significant species, which were cross-referenced against historical sources spanning three centuries (17th century to 1955). Data were organized into twenty-two health categories based on established frameworks, with small local adaptations, and Jaccard Similarity Indices (JI) were applied at category and species levels.

Fifty of 60 shortlisted medicinal plants were documented historically. Use patterns revealed emergence (68%; 426/626) contemporary-only medicinal use-reports), persistence (23%; 144/62) use-reports recorded in both-periods) and decline (9%; 56/62) historical-only use-reports. Respiratory, gastrointestinal and culturally-defined tonic categories showed strong continuity, while specific infectious diseases declined, and diabetes and mental health featured prominently in contemporary reporting. Species-level analysis highlighted both cultural persistence and adaptation. Ten species emerged in contemporary-only use, and JI values varied across species and health categories, reflecting continuity. These findings illustrate that Jamaican ethnomedicine evolved to meet changing health needs while preserving core elements of historical knowledge.

This study provides new insight into long-term patterns of persistence, decline, and emergence of uses across species and health categories. It represents the first multi-species diachronic comparison of Jamaican medicinal plant knowledge, placing contemporary plant use in a broader historical and public health context.