The following study sought to compare the use of medicinal plants to the use of pharmaceuticals among residents in two areas, one urban and one peri-urban, in Peru. The research took place in urban Moche and peri-urban Alto Moche (also known as Miramar), which are located near the city of Trujillo, capital of Región La Libertad, Peru. The town of Moche benefits from availability of modern medicine; however, accessibility and cost are limiting factors, especially in Moche’s peri-urban community of Alto Moche. This study hypothesized that medicinal plant preference would be higher in Alto Moche than in urban Moche because previous research—although focused on other research topics-- seemed to indicate that residents of peri-urban spaces maintain practical rural folk traditions of medical self-sufficiency. However, no statistical significance was found to support this hypothesis. Nonetheless, open-ended survey questions, provided insight into why this assumption was proven false.
