Ethnopharmacological study of medicinal plants used by population in district of Travessão De Minas, Minas Gerais

Abstract

The traditional knowledge of medicinal plants use for diseases treatment is very valuable. The purpose of this present study was to identify the main medicinal plants popularly used in Travessao de Minas-MG to evaluate in the scientific literature and prove the effectiveness of the therapy indicated by the community. Therefore, interviews were carried out with 78 individuals, using a semi-structured questionnaire. As for the answers there was calculated the Relative Importance (RI), Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) and the Responses Frequency (RF). It was identified a total of 145 plants species used, distributed in 70 botanical families. Lippia alba (Brazilian lemon balm) had the highest RF = 81 responses (8,9%), the second highest RI = 1,75 and was indicated to treat diseases in the category of mental and behavioral disorders with the highest ICF = 0,81. The scientific literature proves the effectiveness of most therapeutic indications for Lippia alba.