Ethnopharmacology of Medicinal Plants of the Pantanal Region (Mato Grosso, Brazil)

Abstract

Traditional knowledge is an important source of obtaining new phytotherapeutic agents. Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants was conducted in Nossa Senhora Aparecida do Chumbo District (NSACD), located in Poconé, Mato Grosso, Brazil using semi-structured questionnaires and interviews. 376 species of medicinal plants belonging to 285 genera and 102 families were cited. Fabaceae (10.2%), Asteraceae (7.82%) and Lamaceae (4.89%) families are of greater importance. Species with the greater relative importance were Himatanthus obovatus (1.87), Hibiscus sabdariffa (1.87), Solidago microglossa (1.80), Strychnos pseudoquina (1.73) and Dorstenia brasiliensis, Scoparia dulcis L., and Luehea divaricata (1.50). The informant consensus factor (ICF) ranged from 0.13 to 0.78 encompassing 18 disease categories,of which 15 had ICF greater than 0.50, with a predominance of disease categories related to injuries, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes (ICF = 0.78) having 65 species cited while 20 species were cited for mental and behavioral disorders (ICF = 0.77). The results show that knowledge about medicinal plants is evenly distributed among the population of NSACD. This population possesses medicinal plants for most disease categories, with the highest concordance for prenatal, mental/behavioral and respiratory problems.

The Use of Herbal Medicine in a Rural Community in Vitória Da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil: An Indication for Pharmacological Studies

“…Most cited were those categories related to the digestive system (32.8%), followed by respiratory diseases (17%), general symptoms/signs of inflammation (14.5%), nervous system (13.3%) and circulatory system diseases (12.6%). Similar results were already found in other studies [20,24,33,34] indicating that the residents of São Sebastião use medicinal plants as the first line of treatment for most common diseases. …”

“…However, when the objective is the search for new plant-derived drugs, the concordance of the answers as to the medicinal use of a particular plant is extremely important. Plants indicated for many different applications would have less credibility compared to those with a higher fidelity of use [33]. Plants with relatively high level of concordance, i.e., with multiple informants agreeing on their therapeutic value, suggest a real efficacy in disease treatment [28].…”

Probability sampling design in ethnobotanical surveys of medicinal plants

“…To illustrate this sampling procedure, we considered the data obtained in the ethnobotanical study that took place in NSACD (Bieski et al, 2012), presented in Table 1, of 1179 families distributed in 37 communities (Figure 1).…”

“…A probabilistic approach was employed considering simple and stratified random sampling methods (Levy & Lemeshow, 2008) using as a case study the ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants conducted at NSACD, in 2009 (Bieski et al, 2012).…”

Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of Selected Plants Used by Populations From Juruena Valley, Legal Amazon, Brazil

“…Based on our recent ethnopharmacological surveys of medicinal plants from the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] and literature review [14], we carried out screening of selected plants for their antibacterial, antioxidative and antiradical activities. We also evaluated the linear correlation between the selected secondary metabolites classes present in the extracts to their in vitro antioxidant and anti-radical activities.…”