The Chapada of Araripe located in the Northeast of Brazil, presents a great vegetal diversity. Associated with this, the region presents a great cultural plurality, which reflects in several popular knowledge, such as the use of medicinal plants in the region. The objective of this work was to carry out an ethnopharmacological bibliographic survey of angiosperms present in the region. The scientific name of species was associated with the keywords "traditional use", "traditional medicine" "traditional knowledge" and "Brazil" to collect information published and available on Pubmed, Science Direct, Scielo and Scopus Platform. Subsequently, the species with the greatest versatility of use were selected and their relative importance (RI) indexes were calculated. As a result, 92 species with medicinal potential were identified in the Chapada of Araripe, corresponding to 81 genera and 44 botanical families, with Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Malvaceae and Rubiaceae being the taxa that presented the highest number of species with 16, 6, 5 and 5 respectively. The 10 most versatile species were Anacardium occidentale (RI: 1.38), Astronium urundeuva (1.86), Copaifera langsdorffii (2.00), Hancornia speciosa (1.81), Himatanthus drasticus (1.62), Hymenaea stigonocarpa (1.89), Lafoensia pacari (1.83), Libidibia ferrea (1.43), Scoparia dulcis (1.71) and Ximenia americana L. (1.46). Finally, we emphasize that Chapada of Araripe is a region of great biological and cultural value, being important actions for the preservation of local flora and traditional knowledge.

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One of the main global problems that affect human health is the development of bacterial resistance to different drugs. As a result, the growing number of multidrug-resistant pathogens has contributed to an increase in resistant infections and represents a public health problem. The present work seeks to investigate the chemical composition and antibacterial activity of the essential oil of Syzygium cumini leaves. To identify its chemical composition, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry was used. The antibacterial activity test was performed with the standard strains Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 25853 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and multidrug-resistant clinical isolates E. coli 06, P. aeruginosa 24 and S. aureus 10. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by serial microdilution as well as the verification of the modulating effect of the antibiotic effect. In this test, the oil was used in a subinhibitory concentration. The test reading was performed after 24 h of incubation at 37 °C. The results show that the major chemical constituent is α-pinene (53.21%). The oil showed moderate activity against E. coli ATCC 25922, with the MIC of 512 µg/mL; there was no activity against the other strains. The oil potentiated the effect of antibiotics demonstrating possible synergism when associated with gentamicin, erythromycin and norfloxacin against E. coli 06 and S. aureus 10.

Em virtude das constantes alterações climáticas, desmatamentos, êxodo rural e, consequentemente, ocupação desordenada das áreas urbanas, bem como as precárias condições sanitárias, as arboviroses vêm se tornando um importante problema de saúde pública mundial, principalmente em regiões tropicais. Em vista do crescente aumento dos Arbovírus como transmissores de doenças em humanos, objetiva-se por meio desta revisão bibliográfica atestar sobre arboviroses de ocorrência mundial, com enfoque nas manifestações clínicas, aspectos epidemiológicos, medidas profiláticas, diagnóstico diferencial e tratamento daquelas transmitidas pelo Zika vírus. Para atingir os objetivos deste trabalho, foi realizada uma busca de artigos científicos indexados nas bases de dados Science Direct, Google Acadêmico, SciELO e PubMed. Os achados clínicos da infecção por ZIKV são extremamente inespecíficos, assim, podem ser confundidos com os sintomas de outras doenças febris, como dengue e febre chikungunya. Dessa forma, é de fundamental importância que o Sistema Público de Saúde, em parceria com a população, realize ações destinadas à educação ambiental, higiênico-sanitária, saneamento básico e moradia. Bem como, um maior incentivo em pesquisas que possam determinar qual a real dimensão dos prejuízos que poderão ser ocasionados caso esses patógenos não sejam erradicados com rapidez, além disso, torna-se imprescindível o investimento em possíveis mecanismos de proteção, como, por exemplo, vacinas.

Plants are considered a rich source of bioactive compounds and an alternative agent for insect control. Among them, representatives of the Lamiaceae family are the best known for this potential, as they produce volatile compounds with insecticidal activities, known as essential oils, as is the case with Ocimum gratissimum. In this way, the present work had as objective, to determine the chemical composition of the oil of the leaves of O. gratissimum and its potential insecticide against the cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea. For that, the essential oil was chemically characterized by means of a Gas Chromatograph coupled to a Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS). As for the insecticidal action, nymphs (20 days of age) were used and the fumigation methodology was used in concentrations ranging from 50 to 1000 μg of oil per mL of air. Mortality rates were observed every 12 hours for 1 day. The results showed that the essential oil has insecticidal properties, since it had a median lethal concentration (LC50) of 516 µg/mL. Such property may be related to the heterogeneous composition of the oil, which had 12 terpenic compounds, with 1.8 Cineole being the major compound (30.04%). Thus, the essential oil of O. gratissimum has an insecticidal activity and can be used to fight pests, as in the case of cockroaches.

Levantamento etnobotânico de espécies medicinais do Nordeste Brasileiro com potencial anti-inflamatório Ethnobotanical survey of Brazilian Northeast medicinal species with antiinflammatory potential

A utilização de plantas não se faz apenas para ornamentação, mas também para fins alimentícios e principalmente para fins medicinais. A única distinção entre plantas medicinais e tóxicas está nos efeitos causados no organismo dos seres vivos que as utilizam, sendo ocasionadas pelos seus princípios ativos. O presente trabalho objetivou realizar um levantamento bibliográfico sobre o caráter tóxico presente em espécies tidas como medicinais, a fim de demonstrar a presença de substâncias tóxicas que utilizadas de forma indiscriminada podem apresentar risco. A metodologia consistiu na seleção de material bibliográfico contendo artigos, livros e revistas, voltados para a toxicidade das espécies medicinais da região nordeste do Brasil. O levantamento bibliográfico resultou em 50 espécies com uso medicinal as quais apresentam caráter tóxico frente a diferentes seres vivos. Tais espécies encontram-se dispostas em 25 famílias botânicas. As mais representativas foram Asteraceae (12%) e Fabaceae (12%). Dentre as espécies relatadas 15 destacaram-se por apresentar um maior risco de toxicidade para a população.

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