Etnobotani Formulasi Perawatan Pranikah Suku Lampung Melinting: Transformasi Bahan, Fungsi Ritual, dan Pemetaan Pembelajaran Botani

Abstract

The pre-marital traditions of the Lampung Melinting community involve the use of plants in lulur (body scrubs), tangas (herbal steam baths), henna, facial and hair care, dental hygiene, intimate-area care, and clothing maintenance. This study focuses specifically on non-food uses and excludes data on dishes, beverages, spices, serving practices, and consumption. The study aimed to: (1) identify the taxa used in pre-marital care formulations; (2) analyze the relationships among plant organs, material transformations, and their practical and ritual functions; and (3) map the findings as learning resources for higher plant botany. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted from April to September 2022 in Wana, Nibung, and Maringgai. Nineteen informants (12 men and 7 women, aged 35–78 years), comprising four penyeimbang adat (customary authorities), three traditional leaders, and 12 community members, were interviewed using participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires. The analytical corpus consisted of 23 records of non-food plant use. Data were reduced, coded by practice, compared across informants, verified against botanical nomenclature, and interpreted by prioritizing emic accounts and explicit ritual evidence over analytical inference. The results documented 18 botanical taxa from 16 families, including one genus-level identification (Citrus sp.), as well as four locally named taxa—tinggang, doru, akar jawe, and pucok ganti—whose identities require voucher specimens for confirmation. Leaves were used in 55.6% of the taxa, particularly in boiled and pounded preparations. Plant material selection corresponded to specific functional properties: aromatic materials for tangas, dye-producing materials for henna, saponin-containing materials for clothing maintenance, and textured materials for lulur. Symbolic functions were not assigned without explicit statements from informants; for example, betel leaves were recorded as a cleansing material rather than interpreted as a symbol of purity. The novelty of this study lies in modeling non-food formulations through the relationships among plant materials, transformations, practices, functions, and evidentiary bases, and in translating these findings into learning resources for morphology, taxonomy, nomenclature, herbarium studies, and ethnobotany.