Levantamento do uso de plantas medicinais em bairros da cidade de Buíque, Pernambuco, Brasil

Abstract

The use of plants for therapeutic purposes is an ancient practice that is still used today. This practice is transmitted between people from generation to generation, characterizing traditional knowledge. The objective of this research was to report which medicinal plants are used by people in the city of Buíque-PE, as well asto report the forms of use and therapeutic indications of the mentioned plants. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with open questionnaires and the selection of participants was made using the non-probabilistic convenience sampling technique. After data collection, Use Value (VU) and Relative Importance (RI) calculations were performed in order to find out which species were most important for the studied population. Respondents from the municipality of Buíque make use of 55 medicinal plants, the most used being lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) and lemon balm (Lippia alba). The mentioned plants are used to prepare teas by infusion, the leaves being the most used plant part. Lemongrass and lemon balm were the plants with the highest VU and IR and are used for diseases of the body systems Infectious or parasitic diseases, Diseases of the digestive system and Diseases of the nervous system, the main diseases being flu, stomach ache, anxiety and pain. This study contributed to documenting local traditional knowledge about medicinal plants and their uses, helping to maintain and disseminate this knowledge.