Medicinal plants cultivation and use in the rural Community Sítio Bujari, Cuité, Paraíba, Brazil

Abstract

The use of plants for therapeutic purposes is a very widespread traditional practice in the rural population, representing an alternative treatment and/or prevention of diseases. The present study aimed to evaluate the medicinal plants cultivation and use by Bujari community residents, Cuité, Paraíba. This is a cross-sectional, quali-quantitative and descriptive study, which used the “Snowball” methodology for sample selection and a structured questionnaire to identify the socio-epidemiological profile, information on the plants cultivation/use and interactions with conventional medicines. The sample consisted of 17 residents, mostly women, aged 61 to 80 years, farmers and retirees, with an income of 1-3 minimum wages and low education. The main diseases presented were hypertension, diabetes and respiratory allergies, with the species Lippia alba, Mentha sp., Cymbopogon citratus, Chenopodium ambrosioides and Plectranthus amboinicus being the most cultivated. Most of the conventional drugs used consisted of antihypertensive and hypoglycemic drugs, often combined with herbal herbs. Guidelines for the safe and medicinal plants rational use by health professionals are important to minimize adverse effects, pharmacological interactions and harm to users' health due to the residents popular knowledge vulnerability.

Keywords: Medicinal plants; Rural community; Traditional medicine.