Natural resources for therapeutic use: evidence from Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Sampaio, Ana Tânia Lopes
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Silva, Richardson Augusto Rosendo da, et al, .
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRN
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/handle/123456789/54519
• topic: public health; complementary therapies; medicinal plants; nursing; raditional medicine; insects stings

Aim and Objective: Identify plants used for insect stings in selfcare practices in the situation of suffering by people living in a rural location of Santa Maria municipality, Southern Brazil. Material and Methods: To achieve the proposed objective, there were semi-structured interviews and participant observation (N-17) in the period from 2015 to 2017. The thematic axis emerged in the content analysis to treat the material. Results and Discussion: The results show that five respondents reported using plants to treat insects or spiders’ injuries. Seven plant species from different angiosperms families were mentioned: (I) Ruta graveolens L., (II) Sida rhombifolia L., (III) Citrus × sinensis (L.) Osbeck, (IV) Plantago tomentosa Lam., (IV) Allium sativum L., (VI) Eucalyptus globulus Labill and (VII) Mirabilis jalapa L. This study revealed the popular use of herbal therapy for insect and spider stings in health care. Also, it showed the importance of knowledge and recognition of health professionals about popular knowledge for scientific advances. Final Considerations: We conclude that the self-care practices in situations of suffering refer to certain social, economic, and cultural contexts, showing the need to insert the health professional in this reality and establish a therapeutic alliance, aiming to reduce the distances between scientific and popular knowledge