Contemporary Use of Medicinal Plants in the Bulgarian Mountain Rhodopes Based on Traditional Knowledge

The traditional knowledge on the medicinal properties of 114 plant species (belonging to 110 genera and 52 families) is preserved in the Central and Eastern parts of Bulgarian Rhodopes Mountain. The local population of some settlements relies solely on medicinal plants. The field ethnobotanical data were collected through the in-depth method in combination with a semi-structured interviews of 92 informants. The quantitative ethnobotanical indices such as Use Value (UV) index, Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) and Fidelity Level (FL) reveal that in both regions of the ?Rhodopes, medicinal plants are mentioned most often in relation to diseases affecting nervous, respiratory, digestive, and cardiovascular systems followed by reproductive, urinary, immune and musculoskeletal. The loss of traditional knowledge about medicinal plants is expected in the condition of cultural globalization. The application of statistical indices will make possible the assessment and monitoring of this knowledge preservation in the Rhodopes in the future.