Nélson Leal Alencar

A new approach to study medicinal plants with tannins and flavonoids contents from the local knowledge

AIM OF THE STUDY The present work tested the power of different methodological strategies for identifying plants that could be interesting in terms of their phenolic compounds (especially flavonoids and tannins) by comparing a new index in which priority-determining criteria are based on the free-listing technique as well as on two randomized methods for choosing plants within an ethnodirected based approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study was undertaken in the rural area of the municipality of Altinho located in the central region of Pernambuco State, northeastern Brazil. The ethnobotanical survey was divided into three different stages. The first stage was a general survey of 101 individuals on the use and knowledge of medicinal plants within the community. During the second stage local specialists were selected on the basis of the quality and quantity of information they offered during the initial phase of the investigation. The third stage consisted of returning to the specialists a final time in order to apply the free-listing technique. We also assumed that a plant could demonstrate anti-inflammatory and healing effects even without the presence of the compounds of interest of this study. RESULTS There is a strong association between tannin content and the effects popularly attributed to wound-healing and anti-inflammatory plants. No relationships were observed between plants used by the community to treat inflammation or healing with their flavonoid contents. CONCLUSION Thus, identifying Caatinga medicinal plants known with anti-inflammatory activity and healing capacities is a good criterion for identifying species with high levels of tannins, although these same criteria are not useful for identifying plants with high flavonoid contents.

How ethnobotany can aid biodiversity conservation: reflections on investigations in the semi-arid region of NE Brazil.

Ethnobotany is a relatively new discipline but its social and scientific roles are becoming more consistently defined and its importance as a tool for complimenting management and conservation strategies at local and regional levels is now well recognized by the scientific community throughout the world. In the present work we have collected information from four years of ethnobotanical study in an area of caatinga vegetation in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil with the goal of defining a model for conservation and management actions in the region. Drawing on ethnobotanical and ecological information obtained through traditional techniques of ethnobotanical and vegetation surveys, we discuss the uses of 166 native and exotic plant species and suggest specific actions and specific groups of species for conservation and sustainable use programs. We also discuss the limitations of our approach and indicate what information must still be collected in order to construct robust and workable plans of action.

The Inclusion and Selection of Medicinal Plants in Traditional Pharmacopoeias—Evidence in Support of the Diversification Hypothesis

The Inclusion and Selection of Medicinal Plants in Traditional Pharmacopoeias—Evidence in Support of the Diversification Hypothesis. An ethnobotanical study with phytochemical analyses was undertaken to examine the medicinal plants used by residents of a small rural community in northeastern Brazil. The present work tested two ideas that attempt to explain the inclusion and selection of medicinal plants in a given culture: the diversification hypothesis and the concept of versatility. The study involved 101 people and used semistructured interviews. A total of 61 plants were selected, including 25 exotic and 36 native species. Plants were classified according to their habit and analyzed for their phytochemical components. In addition, the relative importance (RI) of these plants was calculated, and a chemical diversity index (CDI) was created and applied to each of the species. Exotic and native plants were found to have significantly different occurrences of certain classes of compounds; this result supports the diversification hypothesis. It was therefore concluded that exotic plants are included in traditional pharmacopoeias to fill therapeutic vacancies that native plants cannot satisfy.

Can the Apparency Hypothesis explain the selection of medicinal plants in an area of caatinga vegetation? A chemical perspective

This scientific note examines the ability of the apparency hypothesis to explain the selection of medicinal plants by members of a rural community located in the Caatinga dryland region of Pernambuco state. A total of 61 plants considered to be medicinal were examined phytochemically to test the premises of this hypothesis. It was concluded that apparency does not completely explain our findings.

Medicinal Plant Knowledge Richness and Sharing in Northeastern Brazil

Medicinal Plant Knowledge Richness and Sharing in Northeastern Brazil.Determining how knowledge of medicinal plants is distributed in a community has been a challenge in the field of ethnobotany in recent years. Comparing the richness of knowledge and levels of sharing of such information is required in order to understand the patterns of knowledge and use of medicinal plants in traditional communities. This study evaluates the richness and level of knowledge sharing of medicinal plants among the inhabitants of a rural community in the Caatinga region of Pernambuco, Brazil. Knowledge richness and sharing was measured by the knowledge richness index (KRI) and the knowledge sharing index (KSI), which are simple tools to assess the distribution of local knowledge. We found that the community sustains a pharmacopoeia rich in medicinal plants, but that this plant knowledge is not uniformly distributed among community members. Based on the calculated indices, a significant relationship between the richness of knowledge, gender, and age of informants was not discovered. However, occupation was an important factor in the knowledge of medicinal plants, as residents with jobs related to land use had a greater knowledge in this area. The study also indicated that the formation of experts in the community, based on either knowledge of a large number of plants or of exclusive knowledge of particular plants, did not have a direct relationship with age or gender.Compartilhamento e Riqueza de Conhecimento de Plantas Medicinais no Nordeste do Brasil.Compreender como está distribuído o conhecimento sobre plantas medicinais em uma comunidade é um dos novos desafios da etnobotânica nesses últimos anos. Aliado a isso, comparar riquezas e níveis de compartilhamento destas informações faz-se necessário para definir os padrões de conhecimento e uso de plantas medicinais em comunidades tradicionais. Este trabalho objetiva avaliar por meio de índices de valoração a riqueza de conhecimento sobre plantas medicinais e o nível de compartilhamento do conhecimento sobre plantas medicinais entre os habitantes de uma comunidade rural na Caatinga pernambucana, Nordeste do Brasil. A riqueza e compartilhamento do conhecimento foram medidos através do índice de riqueza do conhecimento (KRI) e do índice de compartilhamento do conhecimento (KSI), os quais são índices recentes em estudos etnobiológicos, representando ferramentas simples para avaliar a distribuição do conhecimento em um grupo humano. Apesar de a comunidade ter uma farmacopéia tradicional rica em plantas medicinais, o conhecimento não é distribuído uniformemente, uma vez que foi observado um baixo compartilhamento do. Não foram observadas relações estatisticamente significativas entre a riqueza de conhecimento, gênero e idade dos informantes, ocorrendo uma fraca relação entre a idade e o número de plantas mencionadas pelos informantes. Entretanto, a ocupação foi um fator importante no conhecimento de plantas medicinais, considerando que agricultores apresentaram um maior conhecimento.

Medicinal Plants Prescribed in the Hospital of the Sao Bento Monastery between 1823 and 1824 in Olinda - Northeastern Brazil~!2010-01-05~!2010-01-20~!2010-06-22~!

Given the high importance of historical documental sources to better understand the dynamics of current pharmacopoeias, this work investigated the prescription book of the hospital of São Bento Monastery in Olinda (Northeastern Brazil) written by the physician Joaquim Jerônimo Serpa for the years of 1823 and 1824. The main aims of the work were to identify the medicinal plants used in formulations, identify the similarity among prescribed species within these years, access the proportion of plant-based medicines in the prescriptions and to access the contribution of species from the Americas in the formulations. A total of 63.8% of prescriptions had one or more plant species. We found 41 plant species in the prescriptions, most of them being exotic although native species were getting importance in the period. The most cited species were Papaver somniferum L., Rheum officinale Baill., Psychotria ipecacuanha (Brot.) Stokes, Cinchona sp. and Guaiacum officinale L. The similarity between the years was slow (46.5%), because of an increase in the number of prescribed species for the year of 1824. The importance of plants for the medicine at that time was elucidated, but, regarding native species, it is necessary to find out which factors influenced the incorporation of American plants on the official medicine.