Aim To use parsimony analysis of endemicity and cladistic analysis of distributions and endemism to evaluate two hypotheses addressing biogeographical relationships among Amazonia, the Caatinga forest enclaves, Pernambuco Centre and the southern Atlantic Forest.Location North-eastern Brazil, South America.Methods To find the most parsimonious areagram we analysed a matrix composed of the presence (1) or absence (0) of 745 taxa (i.e. 293 genera and 452 species of woody plants) within 16 localities belonging to the four large regions addressed in this study.Results One most parsimonious areagram was found and it shows a basal separation between the southern Atlantic Forest and all other regions. This break is followed by a separation between all Caatinga forest enclaves (except Baturité) from a cluster composed of Baturité, the Pernambuco Centre and Amazonia. In this cluster, the most basal separation isolates Baturité from the cluster formed by localities from Amazonia and the Pernambuco Centre. The biogeographical relationships among sites could not be explained by either a random distribution of species among sites or by the geographical distance between sites.Main conclusions We found strong cladistic signal within the raw distribution and phylogenetic data used in our analysis, indicating structured species assemblages in the surveyed localities. They have resulted from the fragmentation of an ancestral biota that was once widely distributed in the region. Our results also support the hypothesis that Atlantic Forest is not a biogeographically natural area, because the Pernambuco Centre is more closely related to Amazonia than to the southern Atlantic Forest. Finally, our data do not support the notion that Caatinga forest enclaves comprise a single biogeographical region, because one Caatinga forest enclave (Baturité) is much more closely related to the cluster formed by Amazonia and the Pernambuco Centre than to other sites. These relationships suggest the occurrence of forest connections between Amazonia and the Atlantic Forests across Caatinga during several periods of the Tertiary and Quaternary. However, palaeoecological data currently available for the Caatinga region are still scarce and do not have either the spatial or temporal resolution required to reconstruct the history of connections among the forests in north-eastern Brazil.

Increases in ethnobotanical studies and knowledge in recent decades have led to a greater and more accurate interpretation of the overall patterns related to the use of medicinal plants, allowing for a clear identification of some ecological and cultural phenomena. “Hidden diversity” of medicinal plants refers in the present study to the existence of several species of medicinal plants known by the same vernacular name in a given region. Although this phenomenon has previously been observed in a localized and sporadic manner, its full dimensions have not yet been established. In the present study, we sought to assess the hidden diversity of medicinal plants in northeastern Brazil based on the ethnospecies catalogued by local studies. The results indicate that there are an average of at least 2.78 different species per cataloged ethnospecies in the region. Phylogenetic proximity and its attendant morphological similarity favor the interchangeable use of these species, resulting in serious ecological and sanitary implications as well as a wide range of options for conservation and bioprospecting.

A amamentação é muito importante para o desenvolvimento e crescimento das crianças e proporciona muitos benefícios para as mulheres, como a diminuição do risco de desenvolver câncer de mama. São necessários estudos que abordam a relação benéfica entre esses dois campos, principalmente no que se refere ao cenário nacional. Diante disso, o presente trabalho realizou um levantamento dos estudos publicados em revistas de saúde pública sobre os temas: amamentação, câncer de mama e a relação entre os dois temas, através de um mapeamento sistemático, num corte temporal de cinco anos. Em um levantamento inicial foram obtidos 46 estudos, após a aplicação dos critérios de inclusão 35 estudos foram considerados relevantes, sendo eles 20 sobre amamentação e 15 sobre câncer de mama. A partir da análise dos estudos, foi possível perceber que o assunto mais tratado nesse contexto é amamentação exclusiva e câncer de mama. Foi possível constatar também que apenas 6 artigos (3 sobre amamentação e 3 sobre câncer de mama) abordam a importância da amamentação para a redução do câncer de mama e que a região do Brasil que mais realizou pesquisas e publicou nas referidas bases de dados foi a região Sudeste.

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