Valuing medical plants as an alternative to health: an ethnobotanic study

Abstract

The state Santa Catarina is endowed with recognized biodiversity, a wide variety of natural landscapes: Atlantic Forest, coastline and mountains and mountain ranges, and Ãguas Mornas is classified as an area of colonial immigration of Europeans (sec. XIX). Moreover, it is a region of rich cultural diversity, composed of migrants from other regions of Brazil, resulting in cultural miscigenation, which acts decisively in the use of medicinal plants. To understand the use of these natural resources, their existing relations between man and the environment, an ethnoecological study was carried out, addressing the uses of medicinal plants in folk medicine in the Santa Isabel neighborhood, in the municipality of Ãguas Mornas/SC. In fact not If there is a record of any survey of medicinal plants among the population of the world, about medicinal plants, which results in the research problem; In other words, at what level the lack of appreciation of knowledge about medicinal plants can affect the health of the local population, which seeks almost exclusively the treatments of conventional medicine, filling up hospitals and health units, many of them Affected by diseases that could be remedied through the use of natural herbs? Data collection was performed in two moments. First, the interview with the population was conducted through semi-structured forms, establishing a case study, that is, a survey of the popular knowledge of those involved in the research. In the second moment, an interview was carried out with a couple of Raizeiro/Benzedor, also using semi-structured interviews, analyzing the following aspects: Working time with medicinal plants, time of residence in Santa Isabel (minimum 8 years), besides Which plants they use. The majority of the interviewed pubic has between 15 and 50 years, characterizing a young, low-income population, with a monthly income of 1 to 2 minimum wages. Not different, even if it has presented a large portion of young people, the typical user of medicinal plants is dominant, by elderly women, with little or no study. They learned their recipes from parents, grandparents and other ancestors. It was found that native natural resources have been scarce, taking into account the impact of immigrant cultures, significantly influencing the traditional culture of medicinal plant use, with the introduction of habits and many plants Exotic.