Abstract
BackgroundThis paper explores patterns of women’s medicinal plant knowledge and use in an urban area of the Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, this paper examines the relationship between a woman’s age and her use and knowledge of medicinal plants. It also examines whether length of residence in three different areas of the Amazon is correlated with a woman’s use and knowledge of medicinal plants. Two of the areas where respondents may have resided, the jungle/seringal and farms/colonias, are classified as rural. The third area (which all of the respondents resided in) was urban.MethodsThis paper utilizes survey data collected in Rio Branco, Brazil. Researchers administered the survey to 153 households in the community of Bairro da Luz (a pseudonym). The survey collected data on phytotherapeutic knowledge, general phytotherapeutic practice, recent phytotherapeutic practice and demographic information on age and length of residence in the seringal, on a colonia, and in a city. Bivariate correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the inter-relationships among the key variables. Three dependent variables, two measuring general phytotherapeutic practice and one measuring phytotherapeutic knowledge were regressed on the demographic factors.ResultsThe results demonstrate a relationship between a woman’s age and medicinal plant use, but not between age and plant knowledge. Additionally, length of residence in an urban area and on a colonia/farm are not related to medicinal plant knowledge or use. However, length of residence in the seringal/jungle is positively correlated with both medicinal plant knowledge and use.ConclusionsThe results reveal a vibrant tradition of medicinal plant use in Bairro da Luz. They also indicate that when it comes to place of residence and phytotherapy the meaningful distinction is not rural versus urban, it is seringal versus other locations. Finally, the results suggest that phytotherapeutic knowledge and use should be measured separately since one may not be an accurate proxy for the other.
Highlights
This paper explores patterns of women’s medicinal plant knowledge and use in an urban area of the Brazilian Amazon
Data collection The data in this paper were collected during a survey conducted in the community of Bairro da Luz, located in Rio Branco, Brazil
Descriptive statistics Phytotherapeutic knowledge Medicinal plant knowledge was measured by asking women to free-list plants for fever, respiratory infections, diarrhea, gynecological problems, contraception, to induce menstruation, and wound healing
Summary
This paper explores patterns of women’s medicinal plant knowledge and use in an urban area of the Brazilian Amazon. The third area (which all of the respondents resided in) was urban It was early Wednesday morning when fourteenmonth-old Thales woke the entire household with his insistent crying. When his mother, Graça, pulled him out of the hammock she noticed that he was running a slight fever. During that day and the Graça and Thales’s grandmother, Adriana, continued to treat him with home remedies made from medicinal plants. They used various teas to alleviate his condition: orange leaf tea to lower his fever, mint tea to soothe his upset stomach and a tea brewed from guava leaves to stop his diarrhea
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