Ethnopharmacological and botanical evaluation of medicinal plants used by Brazilian Amazon Indian community

Avaliação etnofarmacológica e botânica de plantas medicinais utilizadas em uma comunidade Indígena Amazônica Brasileira

Evaluación etnofarmacológica y botánica de plantas medicinales utilizadas por la comunidad Indígena Amazónica Brasileña

Abstract:

Plants have been widely used to treat many diseases, especially by traditional communities as Indians, that can be considered as an important source of empirical knowledge about the medicinal potential of the Brazilian biodiversity. This study aimed to investigate the use of medicinal plants by a particular Amazon-Indian community named Ikólóéhj (Gavião). The data was obtained based on a semi-structured interview and long-term visits along the indigenous area to harvest the botanical material to subsequent identification and storage in herbarium. In the present work, we identify 23 plant species and three morphospecies, distributed into Ferns / Lycophytes and Angiosperms. In addition, we show that leaves (78%), bark (13%) and roots (9%) were used via maceration (49%), topical use (26%), infusion and bath (13%), and decoction (9%). These plants were used to treat pain, diarrhea, malnutrition, parasites infection, wounds, and snakebites. We also observe that the knowledge about medicinal plants is shared to the older members of the community and this information is transmitted orally to the next generations. Thus, the present study contributes to the regrowth and preservation of knowledge about the use of medicinal plants providing important subsidies for understanding of therapeutic properties of Amazonian plants.

Keywords:
Brazilian biodiversity; Amazon plants; traditional communities