Patients’ perception and use of medicinal plants for chronic disease in a community from Rio Grande do Sul / Percepção dos pacientes e uso de plantas medicinais para doenças crônicas em comunidade do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The popular use of medicinal plants to treat health problems is well known and disseminated from generation to generation, but little is known about toxicity and interactions. Therefore, this work aims to verify the perception about the use of medicinal plants for chronic patients in a community located in Rio Grande do Sul. A cross-sectional study was carried out with chronic diseases’ patients from the municipality of Novo Hamburgo, RS that are users of medicinal plants. Sociodemographic data, clinical characteristics and aspects related to the use of medicinal plants were evaluated for 100 users of medicinal plants, predominantly female (90%) and mean age was 54.8 years. Most have incomplete elementary education (55%) and 95% of those interviewed receive a monthly family income of 1 to 3 minimum wages. There were 318 citations of plant species, of which 63 were different types. The most used were chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L, 9.4%), lemon grass [Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf, 8.4%), pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium L., 6.2%) and macela [Achyrocline satureioides (Lam.) DC., 5%]. Regarding the preparation method, 52% of the patients performed infusion, 39% decoction, 7% decoction and infusion and 2% consumed in the mate. Most of the results on the medicinal plants used are consistent with the findings in the literature and it is noticed that a great part of interviewees knows that, even being natural products, medicinal plants may be dangerous.