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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1443360
This article is part of the Research Topic Traditional Medicines in the Treatment of Infectious Diseases – Challenges and advances View all articles

Natural resources used in the traditional medicine of the Marinaú community, Caxiuanã forest, Brazil

Provisionally accepted
Paula Correa Paula Correa 1,2*João Paulo Sousa João Paulo Sousa 1Lorena Albernaz Lorena Albernaz 1Laila Salmen Espindola Laila Salmen Espindola 1Márlia Coelho-Ferreira Márlia Coelho-Ferreira 3
  • 1 University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
  • 2 Federal University of Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
  • 3 Emílio Goeldi Paraense Museum, Belém, Pará, Brazil

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Populations living in Sustainable Use Conservation Units in the Amazon have accumulated knowledge of useful natural resources for their subsistence. We investigated the natural resources used in the community of Marinaú in traditional medicine and assessed the species of interest for bioprospecting or biological conservation. The field study was carried out with 48 informants from the São Sebastião de Marinaú Community, Caxiuanã National Forest (CNF), Brazil, a Sustainable Use Conservation Unit. It involved participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and guided tours. Indices of Use Value (UV), Fidelity Level (FL), and Consensus Factor (ICF) indicated plant species with therapeutic potential. A total of 944 uses associated with 154 plants and 21 animals were reported. The plants are distributed among 59 botanical families and 126 genera. The medicines are prepared mainly by decoction of leaves and bark. According to UV, Veronica (Dalbergia monetaria L.f.) was the most important. The animals used are all vertebrates, and paca (Cuniculus paca) was the most cited. Bile and lard are the parts most used in the recipes. They mentioned 116 diseases, especially those of the digestive system. The ceruzeiro (Allantoma lineata (Mart. ex O.Berg) Miers) had a high consensus of local use, and no additional studies on this species exist. The present study highlighted species in vulnerable conditions and with high agreement in use to treat diseases. Further studies may provide strategies for the sustainable use and conservation of these species and for developing relevant drugs to treat common disorders that affect Amazon populations.

    Keywords: ethnobothany, Ethnozoology, Amazonian populations, Ethnomedicine, Amazonian Sustainable Use Conservation Units

    Received: 03 Jun 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Correa, Sousa, Albernaz, Salmen Espindola and Coelho-Ferreira. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Paula Correa, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil

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