Background: The Ethnobotanical Collection from the Libyan territories of the botanist Alessandro Trotter is included in the Oratio Comes Botanical Museum at the Faculty of Agraria at the University Federico II in Naples. Trotter explored different territories of Libya, mainly Tripolitania, between 1912-1924, collecting plant specimens and the drugs most frequently sold in the markets. The Libyan herbarium currently includes over 2300 sheets of mounted and accessioned plants. The drugs, mostly acquired by Trotter from Tripolitanian markets, were identified and packed in 87 paper sheets or boxes. Trotter added ethnobotanical information for each species when available.Methods: A database of the herbarium species and the drugs has been carried out, after a taxonomic update. Nomenclature has been revised according to the African flowering plants database and the World Checklist of selected plant families, and a comparison with currently available ethnopharmacological data from North African has been attempted.Results: In this study, ethnopharmacological data related to about 80 species of flowering plants and to 4 lichens are presented. The plants are mainly from Mediterranean or Sub-Saharan habitats and belong to 37 different families; Lamiaceae was the most cited family, with 10 accessions. Generally, the aerial parts of the plants are the most frequently used (28 species), followed by leaves (15 species), flowers and seeds (9 species), fruits (7 species) and hypogean organs (roots, rhizomes, tubers: 5 species). Plants were generally processed in very simple ways: infusion or decoction of the plants were prepared and orally administered or used for topical applications. A wide range of conditions was treated, ranging from mental disorders to skin affections. All the organs of human body are considered, but the pathologies of gastro-intestinal tract, respiratory system and those related to traumatic accidents were the most frequently mentioned. The comparison with the recent ethnopharmacological research in Maghreb and its neighboring countries reveals a high correspondence; almost all the plants cited by Trotter are still used in the folk medicine of at least one of the North African countries, and the therapeutic uses of each plant appear consistent over time.Conclusions: The information collected by Trotter is an important contribution to tracing plant utilization in Libyan folk medicine over the last century.

Mediterranean mountain landscapes are undergoing a widespread phenomenon of abandonment. This brings, as a consequence, the loss of traditional land use practices, such as transhumant pastoralism, as well as shrub and wood encroachment, with repercussions on the biodiversity associated with semi-open, human-managed landscapes. In this study, we focus on a mountain pasture from the Southern Apennines (Italy), where free-ranging transhumant grazing is still carried out, to quantify the effects of grazing presence and exclusion on arthropod diversity, and to qualitatively characterize the plant communities of grazed and ungrazed areas. Using field sampling, remote sensing, and semi-structured interviews, we assessed the validity of traditional cattle farming as a landscape management tool. Indeed, high diversity grasslands excluded from grazing were characterized by significantly less even and more dominated arthropod communities, as well as fewer plant species and families. Moreover, in areas that have been consistently grazed over the years, we found no forest encroachment from 1955 to 2019. However, rural communities are experiencing difficulties in keeping local traditions alive, even with current agri-environmental schemes. Thus, traditional livestock grazing can be a valuable management tool to maintain high biological and cultural diversity, even if stronger cooperation and attention to local needs is necessary.

This study aims to evaluate the activity of Italian vulnerary plants against the most important oral pathogenic bacteria. This estimate was accomplished through a fivefold process: (a) a review of ethnobotanical and microbiological data concerning the Italian vulnerary plants; (b) the development of a scoring system to rank the plants; (c) the comparative assessment of microbiological properties; (d) the assessment of potential cytotoxic effects on keratinocyte-like cells and gingival fibroblasts in culture by XTT cell viability assay; (e) clinical evaluation of the most suitable plant extract as antibacterial agent in a home-made mouthwash. The study assays hexane (H), ethanol (E), and water (W) extracts from 72 plants. The agar diffusion method was used to evaluate the activity againstStreptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sobrinus,Lactobacillus casei,andActinomyces viscosus. Twenty-two plants showed appreciable activity. The extracts showing the strongest antibacterial power were those fromCotinus coggygriaScop.,Equisetum hyemaleL.,Helichrysum litoreumGuss,Juniperus communisL., andPhyllitis scolopendrium(L.) Newman subsp.scolopendrium. The potential cytotoxic effect of these extracts was assessed. On the basis of these observations, a mouth-rinse containing the ethanolic extract ofH. litoreumhas been testedin vivo, resulting in reduction of the salivary concentration ofS. mutans.

Ethnobotanical studies generally describe the traditional knowledge of a territory according to a "hic et nunc" principle. The need of approaching this field also embedding historical data has been frequently acknowledged. With their long history of civilization some regions of the Mediterranean basin seem to be particularly suited for an historical approach to be adopted. Campania, a region of southern Italy, has been selected for a database implementation containing present and past information on plant uses.

The Bay of Naples, Italy, is renowned for its archaeological heritage. However, this heritage is threatened by the combination of weathering and the biological activity of microorganisms. Fungi are among the major agents of microbial deterioration of cultural heritage since they can cause cracks and lesions in monuments due to the penetrating force of their hyphae. Such biodeterioration may weaken the stone structures and threaten the longevity of these culturally important monuments. To address this, we collected, identified, and maintained in culture filamentous fungi that colonize the external surface of monuments at five important archaeological sites near Naples, namely Cuma, Ercolano, Nola, Oplonti, and Pompei. We isolated a total of 27 fungal taxa, all of which can be cultivated in the laboratory, and form a part of our reference collection. Many of the described fungal taxa we found belong to groups that are involved in stone biodeterioration and can thus be considered as model organisms for in vitro studies. These results emphasize the importance of identifying and cultivating fungal stock cultures for non-invasive studies on biodeterioration. Our newly developed reference collection represents a useful resource that is available to other researchers to rapidly identify potentially hazardous fungi on other monuments.