Pesquisa etnobotânica de plantas medicinais indicadas para o tratamento de acidentes ofídicos comercializadas pelos feirantes de Palmas – Tocantins

Abstract

The human species has the ability to retain information obtained over time and transmit it to later generations. In this context, ethnobotany proposes to study plants taking into account popular knowledge. Many of these plants have medicinal properties and are marketed by vendors in the city of Palmas/TO. Considering that the state of Tocantins has the Cerrado as its main biome and it has an enormous biodiversity, including the medicinal plants, the present paper aimed to gather information about medicinal plants with phytotherapeutic properties focused in snakebite, sold at free fairs in the city of Palmas. For the selection of the interviewees, the non-probabilistic and intentional technique was used and the interviews were semi-structured, the stallholders were able to mention the medicinal plants they commercialized and the socioeconomic aspect of this commercialization. Seven fairs were visited, but only in four of these fairs were found stallholders who fit the profile sought for the research and who agreed to participate in the study. Within these participants, the majority were women, adults, with basic education, who worked full-time as stallholders. It was possible to find two plants with medicinal potential for the treatment of snakebites, from two different genres, the genus Mauritia and the genus Coipaifera, and the products sold by the stallholders were present in the form of oil and oil-resin, since none of the products were extracted by the participants, but were purchased by other people for selling at fairs, such products represented a small percentage of the income of the stallholders. However, there were divergences in the indication of the use of these products among the stallholders, demonstrating the need for studies that can align their mode of use.