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A survey of the Compositae used in traditional medicine and as economic plants by Paraguayan country people was undertaken to identify the components of crude drugs traded by herbalists. Forty-five medicinal and economic species have been identified through field work in the rural areas and enquiries in the markets, as well as by examination of the literature in the Spanish language. Some crude drugs are shown to be mixtures of several closely-related species. The role of indigenous plant remedies within the local health care system is also discussed.

Samples of the sweet-tasting species Acanthospermum hispidum DC. (Compositae) (aerial parts), Boscia salicifolia Oliv. (Capparidaceae) (stem bark), Hovenia dulcis Thunb. (Rhamnaceae) (peduncles) and Inga spectabilis Willd. (Leguminosae) (arils) were acquired as part of a continuing search for high-intensity natural sweeteners of plant origin. Following their preliminary safety evaluation, the sweetness of these plants was traced to large amounts of sugars and polyols by taste-guided fractionation, which were identified and quantified using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The combined yields of sugars and polyols in the A. hispidum, B. salicifolia, H. dulcis, and I. spectabilis samples investigated were 6.9, 10.1, 18.4 and 12.1% w/w, respectively. These yields are much higher than the total saccharide and polyol content (2.4% w/w) of the sweet dried fruits of Thladiantha grosvenorii (Swingle) C. Jeffrey (Cucurbitaceae), a species which has previously been reported to contain more than 1% w/w of the intensely sweet triterpene, mogroside V. The dried leaves of Symplocos tinctoria (L.) L'Hérit. (Symplocaceae), which were not appreciably sweet, were found to contain only 2.0% w/w of sugars. The results of this investigation, therefore, suggest that unless the saccharide and/or polyol content of a plant part is well over 5% w/w, then it is unlikely to exhibit an overtly sweet taste, unless an intense sweetener is present.