Ina Vandebroek

Ethnomedical Research Specialist, The New York Botanical Garden

Ph.D., Ghent University
Belgium (1998)
Expertise: Ethnobotany, Medical Anthropology, Biocultural Conservation, Community Health, Migrant Studies

Profile

I am fascinated by the dynamics of medicinal plant knowledge and use by indigenous communities in rural areas, as well as by immigrants in the urban environment. I conducted two years of postdoctoral research in the Andes and Amazon region of Bolivia where I interviewed traditional healers and community members about the medicinal plants growing in their surrounding environment. This research showed that richness of plant diversity is not necessarily an indicator of the degree of knowledge held by traditional healers, since healers who live in an environment with considerably less floristic diversity can also hold rich plant pharmacopoeias.

Currently, I am working in the urban environment in New York City with Dominican immigrants on a project funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This project contributes to our understanding of the transnational dynamics of traditional health care practices. Dominicans are an important minority group in New York City, but as immigrants, they are also more vulnerable to disparities in health or health care. They maintain strong cultural traditions, including the tradition of using medicinal plants for a variety of health conditions. When Dominicans migrate from their island in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, to a metropolis such as New York City, the plants they used at home for health care are no longer directly available to them from their patios, home gardens, agricultural fields, or growing in the wild. However, research results point to a surprising degree of overlap in medicinal plant knowledge between first generation immigrants in New York City and Dominicans in the Dominican Republic. Dominicans even acquire new medicinal uses for plants that are readily available in supermarkets in New York City, while other plants familiar to Dominicans are imported and offered for sale in New York City in specialized Afro-Caribbean and Latino community-based shops annex herbal pharmacies, called botánicas. Our research can help to bridge the gap between traditional and biomedical health care, and as such contributes to improved health for Dominican immigrants.

Selected Publications

Van Andel, Tinde, Sylvia Mitchell, Gabriele Volpato, Ina Vandebroek, Jorik Swier, Sofie Ruysschaert, Carlos Ariel Rentería Jiménez & Niels Raas (2012). In search of the perfect aphrodisiac: Parallel use of bitter tonics in West Africa and the Caribbean. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 143: 840-850, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2012.08.008

Henderson, Flor, Ina Vandebroek, Michael J. Balick & Edward J. Kennelly (2012) Ethnobotanical research skills for students of underrepresented minorities in STEM disciplines. Ethnobotany Research & Applications 10: 389-402. Available at http://bit.ly/Henderson-Vandebroek-Balick-Kennelly

Vandebroek, Ina & Michael J. Balick (2012) Globalization and loss of plant knowledge: Challenging the paradigm. PloS ONE 7: 5. Available at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0037643

Medeiros, Patricia, Gustavo Soldati, Nelson Alencar, Ina Vandebroek, Andrea Pieroni, Natalia Hanazki & Ulysses Paulino De Albuquerque (2012) The Use Of Medicinal Plants By Migrant People: Adaptation, Maintenance And Replacement. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012. Available at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/807452/

Mathez-Stiefel, Sarah-Lan & Ina Vandebroek (2012) Distribution and Transmission of Medicinal Plant Knowledge in the Andean Highlands: A Case Study from Peru and Bolivia. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012. Available at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/959285/

Vandebroek, Ina, Victoria Reyes-García, Ulysses Paulino de Albuquerque, Rainer Bussmann & Andrea Pieroni (2011) Local knowledge: Who cares? Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 7: 35. Available at http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/7/1/35

Ceuterick, Melissa, Ina Vandebroek & Andrea Pieroni (2011). Resilience of Andean urban ethnobotanies. A comparison of medicinal plant use among Bolivian and Peruvian migrants in the United Kingdom and in their countries of origin. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 136: 27-54.

Thomas, Evert, David Douterlungne, Ina Vandebroek, Frieke Heens, Paul Goetghebeur & Patrick Van Damme (2011) Human Impact on Wild Firewood Species in the Rural Andes Community of Apillapampa, Bolivia. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 178: 333-347.

Vandebroek, Ina (2010) The dual intracultural and intercultural relationship between medicinal plant knowledge and consensus. Economic Botany 64:303-317. Available at http://www.springerlink.com/content/b128772012381413/fulltext.pdf

Vandebroek, Ina, Michael J. Balick, Andreana Ososki, Fredi Kronenberg, Jolene Yukes, Christine Wade, Francisco Jimenez, Brigido Peguero & Daisy Castillo (2010). The importance of botellas and other plant mixtures in Dominican traditional medicine. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 128: 20-41. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2829983/

Thomas, Evert, Ina Vandebroek & Patrick Van Damme (2009). Valuation of forests and plant species in Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro-Secure, Bolivia. Economic Botany 63: 229-241.

Thomas, Evert, Ina Vandebroek, Patrick Van Damme, Lucio Semo & Zacaria Nosa (2009). Susto etiology and treatment according to Bolivian Trinitario people: a "masters of the animal species" phenomenon. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 23: 298-319.

Thomas, Evert, Ina Vandebroek, Patrick Van Damme, Paul Goetghebeur, David Douterlungne, Sabino Sanca & Susana Arrazola (2009). The Relation between Accessibility, Diversity and Indigenous Valuation of Vegetation in the Bolivian Andes. Journal of Arid Environments 73: 854-861.

Thomas, Evert, Ina Vandebroek, Sabino Sanca & Patrick Van Damme (2009). Cultural significance of medicinal plant families and species among Quechua farmers in Apillapampa, Bolivia. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 122: 60-67.

Keller, Amy, Ina Vandebroek, Youping Liu, Michael J. Balick, Fredi Kronenberg, Edward J. Kennelly & Anne-Marie B. Brillantes (2009). Costus spicatus tea failed to improve diabetic progression in C57BLKS/J db/db mice, a model of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 121: 248-254

Ceuterick, Melissa, Ina Vandebroek, Bren Torry & Andrea Pieroni (2008). Cross-cultural adaptation in urban ethnobotany: The Colombian folk pharmacopoeia in London. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 120: 342-359

Vandebroek, Ina, Evert Thomas, Sabino Sanca, Patrick Van Damme, Luc Van Puyvelde & Norbert De Kimpe (2008). Comparison of health conditions treated with traditional and biomedical healthcare in a Quechua community in rural Bolivia. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 4: 1. Available at http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/pdf/1746-4269-4-1.pdf

Thomas, Evert, Ina Vandebroek, Patrick Van Damme, Paul Goetghebeur, Sabino Sanca & Susana Arrazola (2008) The Relationship between Plant Use and Plant Diversity in the Bolivian Andes, with Special Reference to Medicinal Plant Use. Human Ecology 36: 861- 861-879

Thomas, Evert, Ina Vandebroek & Patrick Van Damme (2007). What works in the field? A comparison of different interviewing methods in ethnobotany with special reference to the use of photographs. Economic Botany 61: 376-384.

Pieroni, Andrea & Ina Vandebroek (2007) Traveling Cultures and Plants. The Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacy of Migrations. Volume 7. Studies in Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology. Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books.

Bussmann, Rainer W., Douglas Sharon, Ina Vandebroek, Ana Jones & Zachary Revene (2007). Health for sale: The medicinal plant markets in Trujillo and Chiclayo, Northern Peru. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 3:37. Available at http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/3/1/37

Thomas, Evert & Ina Vandebroek (2006) Guia de plantas medicinales de los Yurakares y Trinitarios del Territorio Indigena Parque Nacional Isiboro-Secure, Bolivia [Guide to the medicinal plants of the Yurakares and Trinitarios from the Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro-Secure, Bolivia]. Imprenta Sirena, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 522 pp., ISBN 978-90-5989-139-5 [in Spanish]

Vandebroek, Ina & Sabino Sanca (2006) Food medicines in the Bolivian Andes (Apillapampa, Cochabamba Department). In: Eating and Healing: Traditional food as medicine (Eds. Pieroni, A., and Price, L.). Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press

Pieroni, Andrea, Lisa Leimar Price & Ina Vandebroek (2005) Welcome to the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (Editorial). Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 1:1 Available at http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/1/1/1

Vandebroek, Ina, Patrick Van Damme, Luc Van Puyvelde, Susana Arrazola & Norbert De Kimpe (2004) A comparison of traditional healers' medicinal plant knowledge in the Bolivian Andes and Amazon. Social Science & Medicine 59: 837-849 View PDF

Vandebroek, Ina, Jan-Bart Calewaert, Stijn De Jonckheere, Sabino Sanca, Lucio Semo, Patrick Van Damme, Luc Van Puyvelde & Norbert De Kimpe (2004) Use of medicinal plants and pharmaceuticals by indigenous communities in the Bolivian Andes and Amazon. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 82: 243-250 (IF 2,4). Leading article in the Research Section. Available at http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/82/4/243.pdf

Vandebroek, Ina, Evert Thomas & Ametrac (2003) Las plantas medicinales para la atencion primaria de la salud. El conocimiento de ocho medicos tradicionales de Apillapampa, Bolivia [Medicinal plants for primary healthcare. The knowledge of eight traditional healers from Apillapampa, Bolivia]. Industrias Graficas Serrano, Cochabamba, Bolivia, 317 pp., ISBN 90-5989-009-4 [in Spanish]