Caribbean Women’s Health and Transnational Ethnobotany. Immigrants from the Dominican Republic (DR) and Haiti are among the top foreign–born communities in New York City (NYC). As people migrate to new countries, they bring their ethnomedical beliefs and practices, and adapt their plant pharmacopoeias. Haiti and the DR share a flora on the island of Hispaniola. In NYC, the flora is limited to what is available in the city. We selected plants for future laboratory research based on ethnobotanical data from two surveys among Dominicans in the DR and NYC, and a Haitian literature review. In both Dominican datasets, gynecological infections were the top women’s health condition treated with plants. We identified 10 species for this purpose reported by Dominicans that are also known medicines in Haitian culture, although not yet documented for women’s health. Plants for gynecological infections potentially cause dysbiosis of the vaginal microbiota, and may increase rather than prevent disease. There is a public health need to assess traditional medicines for their ability to inhibit pathogenic bacteria, while causing minimal disruption to the vaginal flora. Several species are known antibacterials, but remain to be tested for their efficacy. These results also provide a foundation for a planned ethnobotanical survey among NYC Haitian women.

加勒比妇女健康和跨国民族植物学。来自多米尼加共和国 (DR) 和海地的移民是纽约市 (NYC) 最大的外国出生社区。随着人们迁移到新的国家，他们带来了他们的民族医学信仰和实践，并调整了他们的植物药典。海地和民主共和国在伊斯帕尼奥拉岛上共享一个植物区系。在纽约市，植物群仅限于市内可用的植物群。我们根据来自 DR 和 NYC 的多米尼加人的两项调查的民族植物学数据以及海地文献综述选择了用于未来实验室研究的植物。在多米尼加的两个数据集中，妇科感染是用植物治疗的最主要的女性健康状况。为此，我们确定了多米尼加人报告的 10 个物种，它们在海地文化中也是已知的药物，但尚未记录在案以用于女性健康。用于妇科感染的植物可能会导致阴道微生物群失调，并且可能会增加而不是预防疾病。公共卫生需要评估传统药物抑制病原菌的能力，同时对阴道菌群的破坏最小。几个物种是已知的抗菌剂,但其功效仍有待检验。这些结果还为计划在纽约市海地妇女中进行的民族植物学调查奠定了基础。