Les plantes de l'amour à La Réunion
Résumé
Love plants on Reunion Island On Reunion Island, phytotherapy is omnipresent and the plants found on the island are frequently associated with everyday use. More specifically, some plants are used for intimate reasons, which are split among masculine and feminine uses based on their supposed effects. As such, we can distinguish between two types of love plant usage: more feminine uses tend towards the preparation of witchcraft type love philtres that manipulate or aim to encourage the emotional attachment of someone, whereas male uses are more associated with a direct effect on sexual performance. Although the use of love philtres on unsuspecting romantic interests is well established in memoirs, the creation of certain aphrodisiacs sheds more light on the varying dynamics of creole society. These aphrodisiacs reveal an adaptation of traditional knowledge to modern methods in a globalized context which includes the integration of molecules used in allopathic medicine, ethnobotanical traditions found outside the Mascarene Islands, as well as trends communicated through advertising and other media.