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Medicinal Plants

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Introduction to Ethnobiology

Abstract

Most biological resources employed in traditional medical system healing processes worldwide are obtained from whole plants or their parts. In this chapter, the importance of this resource for humanity will be discussed. In addition, how investigations that employ medicinal plants as models have been important to traditional medical systems in the context of understanding and bioprospecting will be shown.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Medical systems consist of a set of knowledge, beliefs, and practices belonging to given human group that are related to the local recognition of diseases (as in disease symptom perception) and strategies used for their treatment (Kleinman 1978).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Applied and Theoretical Ethnobiology, Department of Biology, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manoel de Medeiros s/n, Dois Irmãos, 52.171-900, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

    Thiago Antônio de Sousa Araújo Ph.D., Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior Ph.D. & Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque Ph.D.

  2. Federal Institute of Alagoas, Rodovia AL 101 – KM 126, Centro, 57.955-000, Maragogi, Alagoas, Brazil

    Joabe Gomes de Melo

Authors
  1. Thiago Antônio de Sousa Araújo Ph.D.
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  2. Joabe Gomes de Melo
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  3. Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior Ph.D.
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  4. Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Thiago Antônio de Sousa Araújo Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque

  2. Campina Grande, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil

    Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega Alves

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de Sousa Araújo, T.A., de Melo, J.G., Júnior, W.S.F., Albuquerque, U.P. (2016). Medicinal Plants. In: Albuquerque, U., Nóbrega Alves, R. (eds) Introduction to Ethnobiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28155-1_22

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