As plantas medicinais usadas pela comunidade caxiuanã, situada na floresta nacional de caxiuanã, município de Melgaço-Pará.

Abstract

The medicinal plants used by the Caxiuanã community, of the environmental protection area of the Scientific Research Station Ferreira Penna, belonging to the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, within the Caxiuanã National Florest of, were studied. The purpose of the study was to contribute for the conservation and maintainable use of Caxiuanã FLONA systemize and document the information about the plant species with medicinal uses used by the local inhabitants, based in their own knowledge systems. The data were obtained using structured questionnaires about the socio-economy and the terapeuticamente of plants used by the inhabitants using the Free Listing method. This was applied to 40 informants of both sexes and different ages with a semi-structured questionnaire using a checklist created from an ethno-botanical inventory from a "Guided Tour" made by 8 key informants in excursions in various habitais used in the collection of medicinal plants. In this community the women have an important role in the preparation of medicines, as well as in the management of some of the habitais, and with the teaching of medicinal knowledge. One hundred and fourteen species, belonging to 53 families and 104 genera, were identified. The families Apoocynaceae, Lamiaceae and Asteraceae were the families with the largest number of species, and the species most frequently cites was Andiroba, Carapa guianensis Aubl., being cited by 100% of the informants of both sexes. The most frequent habit of the plants used were trees, and the most frequent habits were the gardens and Terra-firme forest. The leaves and bark were the parts most frequently used in the preparation of household medicines, most frequently as infusions and in baths, the most number of plants were used for infection and parasitic sickness. The diversity of species of medicinal use is high in this area. and the local knowledge about these species is an important source of information for future scientific investigation.