Abstract & Overview
Medicinal plants are widely used in many parts of the world. In Brazil, due to the influence of indigenous roots, this practice has been widespread until today, especially in northern and northeastern regions, where there is the largest concentration of indigenous tribes still alive. The precariousness of public services in remote communities has resulted in the use of plants for medicinal purposes as the main therapeutic resource of these populations and ethnic groups, given that the presence of knowledge about herbs and plant materials, which is passed on among families, is the primary source of treatment and cure of various diseases based on empirical experimentation in these communities (LEITE, 2014). Thus, it should be noted that the use of plants for curative purposes comes from the earliest reports of human societies and, currently, it can still be observed that the wealth attributed to the ancient knowledge of traditional peoples has been a potentiating factor in innovations in research and the search for new substances from what has already been described in these cultures.