Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the use and storage of medicinal plants in the Arruda quilombo community in the state of Ceara, Brazil. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for the determination of traditional knowledge. The qualitative-quantitative collective subject discourse method was used for the data analysis, focusing the discussion on six categories. The Chi-square test with a 5% level of significance was used to analyze the relationship between the age of the interviewee and the postharvest care of medicinal plants. The majority of the quilombo community (76.19%) cultivates the medicinal plants used. Among this total, 57.14% of the interviewees store the plants in plastic bags and do not establish an expiration date. On health risks, 97.62% of the community members reported medicinal plants are natural and therefore cause no harm. Thus, the population is unaware of the care required for storing medicinal plants or the administration of a safe dose. The statistical analysis revealed that the storage of medicinal plants and ingestion of home-remedy phytotherapeutic medications by pregnant women is not associated with age group. Key words: Safe use, storage, toxicity, medicinal plants.
Highlights
Traditional communities, such as the quilombo communities in Brazil, make up part of the immense cultural diversity of humanity
The findings of the present study demonstrate that the Arruda quilombo community in the city of Araripe, Brazil, has vast knowledge of medicinal plants
A total of 97.62% of the community members believe that medicinal plants are healthy and cause no harm, but are unaware of due care required with regard to drying, storage and the safe administration of medicinal plants
Summary
Traditional communities, such as the quilombo communities in Brazil, make up part of the immense cultural diversity of humanity. The collective knowledge of these communities is passed down from generation to generation and constitutes a source of immeasurable cultural wealth Such traditional knowledge results from many years of experience and constitutes a connection between the community and the natural environment, from which community members gather food and medicinal plants as well as practice rituals and other cultural activities (Davies and Kassler, 2015). The situation was more serious when the plants were collected from roadsides or near farms on which pesticides are used, which could lead to the accumulation of pollutants and toxic substances. This possibility is accentuated at more vulnerably time, such as during pregnancy, when the consumption of medicinal plants should be avoided (Araujo et al, 2014)
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