Abstract
The inhabitants of the floodplain of the Mazagão River in the State of Amapá in the Brazilian Amazon have inherited from indigenous African and Cabocla cultures indications for the use and forms of preparation of medicinal plants to cure diseases of the body and spirit. This study aimed to perform an ethnopharmacological survey of medicinal plants used by the riparian community of the floodplains of the Mazagão River, in the State of Amapá. In this study, we chose semistructured interviews with socioeconomic, ethnopharmacological, and ethnobotanical aims. The collection of medicinal plants occurred during guided tours. The Use Value (UV), Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), Correction Factor (CF), and Fidelity level (FL) were calculated. There were 130 species of medicinal plants, distributed in 116 genera and 57 families; Fabaceae (16), Lamiaceae (14), Euphorbiaceae (7), and Arecaceae (6) include 33.33% of the total species sampled. All 95 native species of floodplain forests were previously described, and 35 are exotic species. The species with the highest UV (≥ 0.5) at the mouth of the Mazagão River were Carapa guianensis (0.91), Pentachlethra macroloba (0.83), Dalbergia subcymosa (0.77), Uncaria tomentosa (0.75), Otacanthus azureus (0.62), Virola surinamensis (0.62), Hura crepitans (0.58), Euterpe oleracea (0.56), and Arrabidaea chica (0.51). These species were also the ones that presented the highest ICF among the informants and 100% in FL for a specific therapeutic use. The study is comprised of 16 categories of therapeutic use, of which the majority of the plants used are related to diseases such as microbial infections (20.67%, 73 species), gastrointestinal disorders (13.31%), and inflammation (11.61%). The results showed that knowledge about the use of medicinal plants along the rivers and streams that form the mouth of the Mazagão River is evenly distributed. Most of the interviewees present diversified knowledge about the medicinal resources because they have a close relationship with the floodplain forest. Native species of this forest predominate among the most commonly used medicinal plants as subsidies for future pharmacological studies.
Highlights
The floodplain forest is characterized by flood-prone areas influenced by white water rivers with high nutrient-rich sediment loads of Andean or pre-Andean origin, which occupy approximately 2/3 of the flood-prone areas in the Amazon [1]
The riverside community at the mouth of the Mazagao River lives on the banks of a floodplain forest; the family income is based on the extractive management of the acaı fruit (Euterpe oleracea) and regional shrimp (Macrobrachium amazonicum) fishery
The riverside inhabitants live on the edge of the forest, which is periodically flooded, and there is a practice of passing on traditional knowledge about the use of medicinal plants to future generations by word of mouth
Summary
The floodplain forest is characterized by flood-prone areas influenced by white water rivers with high nutrient-rich sediment loads of Andean or pre-Andean origin, which occupy approximately 2/3 of the flood-prone areas in the Amazon [1] These forests are inhabited by riparian people, human populations who live on the flood-prone river banks and who produce their food through vegetable extractivism, logging, fishing, handicrafts, and shrimp trapping [2, 3]. Phytotherapy and the use of medicinal plants are traditionally part of popular medicine based on the knowledge of different populations, users, and practitioners. It is an effective form of primary health care for the lower income population. These are known to act directly or indirectly through several molecular and cellular targets [11]
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