For millennia, numerous cultures and civilizations have relied on traditional remedies derived from plants to treat a wide range of conditions and ailments. Here, we systematically analyzed ethnobotanical patterns across taxonomically related plants, demonstrating that congeneric medicinal plants are more likely to be used for treating similar indications. Next, we reconstructed the phytochemical space covered by medicinal plants to reveal that i) taxonomically related medicinal plants cover a similar phytochemical space, and ii) chemical similarity correlates with similar therapeutic usage. Lastly, we present several case scenarios illustrating how mining this information can be used for drug discovery applications, including: i) investigating taxonomic hotspots around particular indications, ii) exploring shared patterns of congeneric plants located in different geographic areas, but which have been used to treat the same indications, and iii) showing the concordance between ethnobotanical patterns among non-taxonomically related plants and the presence of shared bioactive phytochemicals.

几千年来，许多文化和文明都依赖从植物中提取的传统疗法来治疗各种病症和疾病。在这里，我们系统地分析了分类相关植物的民族植物学模式，证明同属药用植物更有可能用于治疗类似的适应症。接下来，我们重建了药用植物覆盖的植物化学空间，以揭示i）分类相关的药用植物覆盖了相似的植物化学空间，ii）化学相似性与相似的治疗用途相关。最后，我们提出了几个案例场景，说明如何挖掘这些信息用于药物发现应用，包括：i）调查围绕特定适应症的分类热点，ii）探索位于不同地理区域但已被使用的同属植物的共享模式治疗相同的适应症，以及 iii) 显示非分类相关植物的民族植物学模式与共享生物活性植物化学物质的存在之间的一致性。