Abstract
The Amazon region’s biodiversity is exploited by the local population, commonly for therapeutic purposes. Given this information, the goal of this study was to perform a systematic review on medicinal plants used in this region, listing the name of the species, location found, and its importance for traditional medicine and for local people. For this, a search was performed in the PubMed/Medline and Lilacs databases, using the descriptors medicinal plants, Amazonia or Amazon region, in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. The main findings demonstrate that different species from different botanical families are used by the local population. The main therapeutic outcomes sought out refer to the search for relief or treatment of gastrointestinal, hepatic alterations, fever, kidney stones, pain, infections, and parasites. Thus, it is concluded that the practice of traditional medicine is very common in the Amazon region and is transmitted orally from generation to generation. In this practice, the use of medicinal plants in the form of tea is highlighted, with the species in the form of powder, dried or natural plants. Therefore, it is recommended that the strengthening of pharmacological studies involving local medicinal plants can provide scientific support for popular knowledge.
Highlights
The Amazon Rainforest is known as the largest forest on Earth and for sheltering the largest river basin in the world
The study is a systematic review of scientific articles on medicinal plants found in the Amazon region, which are used in folk medicine; and it was made following the recommendation for PRISM reports of systematic reviews and meta-analyses (Moher et al, 2009)
Reading the titles and summaries of other 236 articles, to identify which did not fit the criteria for inclusion, data about the medicinal plants of the Amazon region, which are used by folk medicine for the treatment of diseases
Summary
The Amazon Rainforest is known as the largest forest on Earth and for sheltering the largest river basin in the world It is distributed by nine countries in South America, with the largest portion in Brazilian lands (67.8%), where it is called Legal Amazon and it comprises the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins (Penna-Filho, 2013). The potential of using medicinal plants as a treatment for diseases, called phytotherapy, is a practice of traditional medicine that has been used since the appearance of the human species (Badke et al, 2011), over the years and with the advance of technology, new ways to treat diseases were being developed and the use of medicinal plants became less common. Several notices and resolutions of the World Health Organization (WHO) express the organization's position regarding the need to value the use of these drugs, in the health field, being observed as a normative basis for the maintenance of health (Unesco, 2020)
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