Abstract
Medicinal plants are important natural goods for many different peoples, especially because of their use as herbal medicines resulting from the traditional knowledge emerged from the direct contact with nature. The great experience of regional, traditional communities on the management and use of plant resources available in their regions led different populations to create and use several medicines. Even though the scientific literature presents studies on the identification and acknowledgement of environmental services, important for the economy of local populations, as well as the preservation of their natural resources by retrieving a regional, popular knowledge, Brazilian biomes, especially Cerrado, a neotropical savanna, have an abundant flora diversity and are confronted with a land occupation scenario marked by the expansion of agricultural and live stocking activities, which threatens the maintenance of herbal medicines supply. In this context, this study introduces the case of the Grupo Espirita da Paz, a group that provides the cultivation, sustainable extraction and processing of medicinal plants by highlighting the value of traditional herbal medicines as informational resources for pharmacological bioprospection, thus favoring the conservation of biomes that offer genetic resources. Key words: Herbal medicines for traditional use, Grupo Espirita da Paz, bioprospection, Brazilian tropical.
Highlights
The traditional knowledge on the use of medicinal plants integrates the culture of peoples who live in regional communities and are closely related to nature
Herbal medicines are in the context of these services and the related practice ranges the entire extension of the production chain, from the process of cultivation/extraction, crop, harvest, and drying to the manufacture of herbal medicines in the form of teas, distributed at no charge throughout the country (Paz, 2018)
The Grupo Espírita da Paz (GEP), in Goiatuba – GO, proved to be a committed and dedicated non-governmental organization (NGO) regarding the social work with herbal medicines
Summary
The traditional knowledge on the use of medicinal plants integrates the culture of peoples who live in regional communities and are closely related to nature. Surrounded by the flora and having experienced a cumulative process of information on the different uses of medicinal plants, traditional or regional communities – indigenous, quilombolas, raizeiros, among others – preserve common knowledge on the use of such plant resources through their culture (Silva et al, 2015). Such knowledge has been passed from generation to generation often transmitting the responsibility to pass on beliefs and values that constitute life views and choices particular to each group (Silva and França, 2012).
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