Traditional Mexican Medicinal Plants for Ocular Diseases: Ethnomedicinal Evidence, Pharmacological Relevance, and Research Gaps from Unexplored Sources

Background/Objectives: Traditional medicinal knowledge remains underrepresented in pharmacological research because much of it is preserved in printed monographs, institutional collections, historical documents, and non-digitized ethnomedical repositories. This study aimed to document medicinal plants used in Mexican traditional medicine for ocular disorders and identify taxa of ethnomedicinal and pharmacological relevance.

Methods

Three repositories were examined: the Medicinal Herbarium of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), the open-access Biblioteca de la Medicina Tradicional Mexicana, and a pioneering undergraduate thesis addressing Mexican medicinal plants used for ophthalmological conditions. Data were manually extracted by two independent expert reviewers, with discrepancies resolved by consensus. Botanical nomenclature was updated using World Flora Online, and records were compared with previous Mexican ethnomedicinal information. Available pharmacological evidence was considered to contextualize the ethnomedical findings and identify taxa warranting further investigation.