Uso de plantas medicinais na atenção básica do município de Aracaju/SE

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of the world's population uses traditional practices in primary health care, and 85% of that portion uses plants or plant-based preparations. A cross-sectional study was carried out from August 2015 to January 2016, in which it sought to investigate the use of medicinal plants in four basic health units in the city of Aracaju-SE. For this, a semi-structured questionnaire was applied to 554 users characterizing the plants used. At the same time, the botanical collection and identification of the medicinal plants were carried out. With regard to age, participants had a mean of 43.79 (deviation ± 15.14) years. Regarding the utilization profile, it was observed that the use of medicinal plants increased with age (p <0.05). Among the interviewees, 71.79% used medicinal plants, the main extractive form used was the infusion 44.4%, the symptoms and diseases cited as justification for the use of medicinal plants were respiratory infection (13%), fever (8% diarrhea caused by vermin (6%), diarrhea without definite cause (10%), headache (8%), stomach pain (14%), influenza and insomnia (10%), hypertension bacterial infection (10%) and anti-inflammatory (14%). Twenty-one plant species were identified, of which one plant had botanical identification different from that cited by the community. The results highlight the importance of traditional medicine in health care and the need for further studies aimed at ensuring the rational and safe use of medicinal plants.