Katrine dos Santos Oliveira¹ , Melise Pessaa Araajo² , Jesus Rodrigues Lemos³

1. Biologist, Independent Professional, Parnaa­ba, PI, Brazil 2. Federal University of Piaua­, Campus Helva­dio Nunes de Barros, Rua Cacero Eduardo, Picos, PI, Brazil 3. Federal University of Piaua­, Campus Ministro Reis Velloso, Av. Safo Sebastia£o, Parnaa­ba, PI, Brazil
Author    Correspondence author
Medicinal Plant Research, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/mpr.2015.05.0001
Received: 29 Mar., 2015    Accepted: 15 May, 2015    Published: 04 Jun., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Oliveira et al., 2015, Survey and Use of Medicinal Plants in an Urban District in the state of Piaui, Northeastern Brazil, Medicinal Plant Research, Vol.5, No. 1 1-6 (doi: 10.5376/mpr.2015.05.0001)

The use of plants for the treatment and cure of diseases is as old as the human species and is widely used by most of the world population as a therapeutic resource, mostly among rural populations, though less noticeable in the urban sphere. Existing data on the medicinal use of plants for the urban portion of society is still poor, and lack information that can trace a better ethnobotanical profile. Thus, this study aimed to collect data on the knowledge and use of medicinal plants, in the context in which the inhabitants of an urban district are inserted. Data collection was performed using a semi-structured form in 80 homes in the district Alto Santa Maria, in the urban area of the city of Parnaíba, northern Piaua­. Twelve species were mentioned to be used by residents, such as boldo, eucalipto, malva, mastruz and erva-cidreira, especially the first one, which is the most used plant by residents in the district. In order to identify therapeutic indications of great importance, we used the Informant Consensus Factor (ICF). The predominant prescription use was indicated as conditions related to diseases of the genitourinary system and kidney stones, skin and nail diseases, dermatitis, and endocrine, metabolic and nutritional disorders, as indicated by ICF. With the development of this research we found that plants with medicinal potential represent a strong resource for the population studied in the treatment of several diseases, and a great degree of use was noticeable.

Ethnobotany; Folk Medicine; Piaua­; Brazil