Usos etnobotánicos del Capsicum chinense Jacq Ají panca en los mercados de la provincia de Pichincha

Abstract

Abstract: The present investigation that refers to the ethnobotanical uses of Capsicum chinense Jacq "Ají panca", in the markets of the city of Quito. 55 markets were visited, a semi-structured interview was applied to the merchants under free and informed consent, in aspects about the uses, quantity, places of obtaining the product, some characteristics of the merchant, references to age, level of education. For the ethnobotanical analysis, the Friedman index, the cultural index and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) were calculated. The species is obtained mainly from other traders as the main suppliers of the product, and usually each trader spends mostly one kilogram quantities of powder. The main markets with the highest sales are located in the center of Quito are América and San Roque. According to the ethnobotanical analyzes of the fidelity level, the commercial name of the species does not influence the results obtained. The most relevant use and with the highest level of fidelity was the preparation of dressing . The inhabitants of of Quito culturally attribute a gastronomic use to the species, whose cultural significance is relatively high, by tradition in Ecuadorian gastronomy.