Traditional use of common centaury (Centaurium erythraea) in the Pirot District

This study provides valuable evidence on traditional knowledge about the medicinal purposes of common centaury - Centaurium erythraea in the Pirot District (Southeastern Serbia). Based on surveys among the rural population in four municipalities, the above-ground parts of C. erythraea were usually used internally: for stomach, appetite, improving the immune system, diabetes, stomach troubles and diseases, burns, wounds, high temperature, for sedation, as aphrodisiac, cough, for digestion; and externally: against burns, wounds, and rheumatic pain. Common centaury was rarely used internally against gastric bacteria, blood purification, bronchitis, cancerous diseases, cleansing the body, cold, disease prevention, high blood pressure, jaundice, liver diseases, and urinary tract inflammation; and externally against chest pain, hemorrhoids, and for sunbathing. The uses against gastric bacteria, bronchitis, cancerous diseases, cough, jaundice, liver disease, urinary tract inflammation, as well as the externally uses for sunbathing, chest pain, hemorrhoids, burns and wounds were the new uses, mentioned by respondents in this study, which were not previously recorded in neighboring regions in the Balkan Peninsula.