Contributions from Afro-descendant peoples have been hugely important in the formation of Brazilian culture. These peoples are partly represented by remnant quilombo communities, which maintain their habits and knowledge about the use and management of plant resources. This research aimed to inventory the medicinal plants used, and to measure the cultural salience of these plants in the Casinhas community of the Jeremoabo municipality, in the state of Bahia (which is situated in a caatinga region). For data collection, we conducted semi-structured interviews with seven people recognized by the community as having the most knowledge about plants. The results indicate that 87 species are used in traditional local medicine, with an emphasis on Poincianella pyramidalis (catingueira), which had the greatest citation frequency and the greatest salience. Diseases of the digestive system had the most plant indications (21 species), leaves (36%) and bark (30%) were the plant parts most often cited for therapeutic use, and tea was the most frequently indicated mode of use (49%). The studied community depends directly on plant resources for their curing practices. The results of this research may serve as a basis for bioprospecting and may also be of benefit in the selection of priority caatinga species for future studies about the ecology of populations, aimed at their sustainable use and management.
Afrobrasilian community; Caatinga; salience index
