Abstract
Brazil is a country with a large party of the population, including traditional communities, that use plants for medicinal purposes, however, the prospect of drugs derived from plants is still little explored. The present study aimed to carry out a systematic review of the literature, in an attempt to understand how studies involving ethnopharmacology have developed in Brazil during the 21st century. The Scielo and PubMed data bases were used, using the keywords “ethnopharmacology” and “Brazil”. In a total of 212 articles were selected and the highest number of publications in the years of, respectively: 2018 (9.43%), 2020 (8.96%) and 2014 (8.96%). Experimental studies (laboratory studies, such as phytochemicals and biological activity) accounted 41.98% of the total, followed by literature reviews (36.32%) and ethno-directed interviews (20.28%). The results showed that the most common types of studies were popular use and biological activity (33.96%), followed by studies of popular use, phytochemical composition and biological activity (21.70%) and ethno-directed survey (20.75%). The most cited botanical families were Fabaceae (8.49%), Asteraceae (5.19%) and Lamiaceae (2.83%) and the main biological activities evaluated were anti-inflammatory (10.85%), antimicrobial (10 .85%), antimalarial (5.19%) and antioxidant (4.72%). Among the traditional communities surveyed were rural communities (50%) and quilombola communities (13.64%). The present study indicates that there was a significant increase in publications involving ethnopharmacology in Brazil, mainly from 2010, associated with a greater diversification of the researched objectives.
Highlights
Since antiquity, humans have used plants for medicinal purposes, this being the main practice for fighting diseases and restoring health until the mid-20th century (Barbosa et al, 2012; Cardoso et al, 2017; Sales et al, 2015)
In an attempt to understand how studies involving ethnopharmacology have been developed during the present century in Brazil, due to the PNPMF and resolutions of the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), the advance in knowledge of the bioactivity of vegetable secondary metabolites and the greater popularization of equipment and research techniques, the aim was to carry out a systematic review of the literature, by prospecting scientific articles in specific databases
In order to identify how ethno-directed research has been developed within the national reality in recent years and whether it is possible to correlate the development of specific public policies with the quantity and profile of academic research related to them, were defined as inclusion criteria: articles that described an ethnopharmacological survey, chemical composition tests, biological activity tests or toxicity tests and studies with the association of one or more of these objectives, related to medicinal plants used by traditional communities, carried out by researchers from Brazilian institutions or those in partnership with researchers from foreign institutions, written in English or Portuguese
Summary
Humans have used plants for medicinal purposes, this being the main practice for fighting diseases and restoring health until the mid-20th century (Barbosa et al, 2012; Cardoso et al, 2017; Sales et al, 2015). The prospection of bioactive plant compounds of pharmaceutical interest has taken place through different analytical methods, among which the random, ethological, chemotaxonomic or phylogenetic approaches and the ethno-directed approach stand out (Albuquerque & Hanazaki, 2006) The latter consists of the selection of species according to the indication of specific population groups, usually, but , traditional communities, using the application of their empirical knowledge in their health and disease systems as substrate for the expansion of scientific knowledge. In an attempt to understand how studies involving ethnopharmacology have been developed during the present century in Brazil, due to the PNPMF and resolutions of the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), the advance in knowledge of the bioactivity of vegetable secondary metabolites and the greater popularization of equipment and research techniques, the aim was to carry out a systematic review of the literature, by prospecting scientific articles in specific databases
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