Estudo etnobotânico de plantas medicinais no Assentamento Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Santa Cruz Cabrália/BA

Abstract

In Brazil there is a great biodiversity, especially of flora, and a considerable use of plants that stand out in popular knowledge. The use of plants for medicinal purposes is related to cultural habits and also to the difficulty of access to synthetic medicines by some communities, making medicinal plants, sometimes, the only option available for treatment. The Ministry of Health has introduced the use of medicinal plants in the policies and programs of the Unified Health System (SUS), encouraging the use of medicinal plants through the Farmácia Viva program. In this perspective, the objective was to present an overview of the use of medicinal plants with phytotherapic potential in the Brazilian Northeast; and, carry out a survey of medicinal plants used in the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Settlement (Lulão) in the municipality of Santa Cruz Cabrália/BA. For this, bibliographic surveys were carried out and methods and tests of the Use Value Hypothesis were used, which predicts the choices of plants with multiple simultaneous botanical characteristics for use with medicinal purposes by human populations. The research was approved by the CEP/UFSB. Initially, a bibliographic survey was carried out focusing on ethnobotanical studies carried out in the Brazilian Northeast (NE). In the second stage, interviews were carried out in the Lulão Settlement, using the “snowball” technique. When consented, the guided tour technique was also applied, or photos of the plants were requested for identification. 590 medicinal species used in folk medicine in the NE were gathered in a list. Of these, it was possible to identify 57 species native to Brazil that are widely used in folk medicine, it is suggested that additional research be carried out in order to scientifically prove the therapeutic efficacy of these species, enabling safety in their use in Primary Health Care and authorization for simplified registration of them as herbal drugs. The interviewees from the Lulão Settlement mentioned the use of 81 medicinal species, and 15 species stood out for having the highest Use Value (VU) index. These species are used to treat various pathologies. The results indicate that people select plants for use as proposed in the Use Value Hypothesis, highlighting the ease of access, the habit and the botanical families of the plants used. The greater use of exotic species (cultivated and naturalized) may point to a loss of local knowledge about native plants or the result of the proliferation of courses with exotic medicinal plants. It is important to highlight that flora is also an important tool for promoting health and for valuing traditional culture. It is expected that the results obtained will contribute to the knowledge about species with phytotherapic potential in the Brazilian Northeast and to Farmácia Viva do Assentamento Lulão, contributing to the Promotion of Health and the sustainable use of the sociobiodiversity of the Atlantic Forest