Uma abordagem etnobotânica sobre recursos vegetais em área florestal e possibilidades para a bioprospecção (Sinop, Mato Grosso, Brasil)

Abstract

People have been interacting with nature in many ways since ancient times, resulting in historical links of the use of natural resources for subsistence and trade. The use of natural resources, among which the use of medicinal plants must be highlighted, is an extremely important traditional knowledge shared by community members, passed down through generations. Ethnobotany may research traditional knowledge aiming to suggest potential plant species for the development of new medicines. Therefore, we assessed the ethnobotanical knowledge in two rural communities, Brígida and Selene, in the municipality of Sinop/MT (11º52’21’’ S, 55º32’07’’ O), northern region of the state of Mato Grosso. Interviews were carried out with inhabitants through a semi-structured questionnaire and the non-probabilistic technique “snowball”. A total of 50 people was interviewed, most of them women, married, age ranging between 23 and 81 years-old, with incomplete elementary-school education. This study has enlisted 155 plant species, distributed in 71 botanical families, among which Lamiaceae, Asteraceae and Amaranthaceae were the most represented. Among the cited species, 56% are native and 44% are introduced. The use of herbaceous species for medicinal purposes prevailed, followed by shrubs and trees. The leaves and buds are the most used parts, cited in 51,35% of therapeutic indications. Among the body systems, the digestive and the respiratory systems, followed by mental and behavioural disorders presented the highest values of the Informant Consensus Factor. Among the most cited plants by interviewees, five tree species and one shrub species are included in a threatened category or extinction risk by commercial interests or population decline. Finally, we indicated four tree species that occur in transitional forests in the region between Cerrado and Amazonia with potential application for the development of biotechnological products: Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl (castanha-do-pará), Esenbeckia leiocarpa Engl. (guarantã), Caryocar brasiliense Cambess. (pequi) and Handroanthus impetiginosus (Mart. ex DC.) Mattos (pau d´arco roxo, ipê). Among them, C. brasiliense is especially relevant for its potential use for the development of medicines that treat gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, inflammation and Alzheimer.