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Medicinal Plant Knowledge Richness and Sharing in Northeastern Brazil

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Medicinal Plant Knowledge Richness and Sharing in Northeastern Brazil.

Determining how knowledge of medicinal plants is distributed in a community has been a challenge in the field of ethnobotany in recent years. Comparing the richness of knowledge and levels of sharing of such information is required in order to understand the patterns of knowledge and use of medicinal plants in traditional communities. This study evaluates the richness and level of knowledge sharing of medicinal plants among the inhabitants of a rural community in the Caatinga region of Pernambuco, Brazil. Knowledge richness and sharing was measured by the knowledge richness index (KRI) and the knowledge sharing index (KSI), which are simple tools to assess the distribution of local knowledge. We found that the community sustains a pharmacopoeia rich in medicinal plants, but that this plant knowledge is not uniformly distributed among community members. Based on the calculated indices, a significant relationship between the richness of knowledge, gender, and age of informants was not discovered. However, occupation was an important factor in the knowledge of medicinal plants, as residents with jobs related to land use had a greater knowledge in this area. The study also indicated that the formation of experts in the community, based on either knowledge of a large number of plants or of exclusive knowledge of particular plants, did not have a direct relationship with age or gender.

Compartilhamento e Riqueza de Conhecimento de Plantas Medicinais no Nordeste do Brasil.

Compreender como está distribuído o conhecimento sobre plantas medicinais em uma comunidade é um dos novos desafios da etnobotânica nesses últimos anos. Aliado a isso, comparar riquezas e níveis de compartilhamento destas informações faz-se necessário para definir os padrões de conhecimento e uso de plantas medicinais em comunidades tradicionais. Este trabalho objetiva avaliar por meio de índices de valoração a riqueza de conhecimento sobre plantas medicinais e o nível de compartilhamento do conhecimento sobre plantas medicinais entre os habitantes de uma comunidade rural na Caatinga pernambucana, Nordeste do Brasil. A riqueza e compartilhamento do conhecimento foram medidos através do índice de riqueza do conhecimento (KRI) e do índice de compartilhamento do conhecimento (KSI), os quais são índices recentes em estudos etnobiológicos, representando ferramentas simples para avaliar a distribuição do conhecimento em um grupo humano. Apesar de a comunidade ter uma farmacopéia tradicional rica em plantas medicinais, o conhecimento não é distribuído uniformemente, uma vez que foi observado um baixo compartilhamento do. Não foram observadas relações estatisticamente significativas entre a riqueza de conhecimento, gênero e idade dos informantes, ocorrendo uma fraca relação entre a idade e o número de plantas mencionadas pelos informantes. Entretanto, a ocupação foi um fator importante no conhecimento de plantas medicinais, considerando que agricultores apresentaram um maior conhecimento.

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Acknowledgments

The most sincere thank-you to all the residents of the communities of Letreiro for the hospitality, cordiality, and availability during the expansive interviews; to the members of the Laboratory of Applied and Theoretical Ethnobiology (LEA/UFRPE) for the companionship during all the stages of the development of this research; and to CAPES for the granting of financial aid. To CNPq for financial support and fellowship granted to UPA. We also thank the anonymous reviewers, and Dr. Robert Voeks for support to improve our paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Etnobiologia Aplicada e Teórica (LEA), Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manoel de Medeiros, s/n, Dois Irmãos, CEP 52171-900, Recife, PE, Brazil

    Nélson Leal Alencar, Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior & Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque

  2. Universidade Federal do Piauí, Campus Ministro Petrônio Portela, CEP 64049-550, Teresina, PI, Brazil

    Nélson Leal Alencar

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  1. Nélson Leal Alencar
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  2. Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior
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Correspondence to Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque.

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Alencar, N.L., Júnior, W.S.F. & Albuquerque, U.P. Medicinal Plant Knowledge Richness and Sharing in Northeastern Brazil. Econ Bot 68, 371–382 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-014-9284-5

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