Medicinal plants, herbal medicines and women's health: a dialogued study between the traditional community of Sertão do Ubatumirim / Ubatuba / SP and the Unified Health System

• Grant number: 21/02537-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2021
• End date: December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany
• Principal Investigator: Lucinéia dos Santos
• Grantee: Nicole Tavares Moreno
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Knowledge about the uses and importance of plant species is intrinsic to the history of human populations in contact with highly diverse environments. Thus, considering the rich Brazilian plant biodiversity, the traditional communities of Brazil have extensive knowledge regarding medicinal plants. Within this context, the study of ethnobotany is important when it demonstrates alternatives to allopathic medicines, which includes medicines for women's health, and a possibility of integrating traditional knowledge into the health system, which is evidenced when the use of herbal medicines is recommended by the Unified Health System (SUS) itself. Given this, there is still a vast capacity for studying medicinal plants related to women's health treatment, as well as the implementation of herbal medicines in women's health care by Basic Health Units. In addition to a systematic literature review, the methodology of this study will partly consist of field research for data collection, through interviews and previously structured questionnaires about the socioeconomic character and traditional knowledge about medicinal plants for women's health. After processing the collected data, a new literature review will be necessary to verify the use of the collected species as possible herbal medicines. This research seeks to find new possible phytotherapies for women's health, providing subsidies for new research, acting mainly in regions within the Atlantic Forest domain.