A Etnobotânica de plantas medicinais da comunidade quilombola de Curiaú, Macapá-AP, Brasil.

Abstract

This work presents an ethnobotany study, done in the black people community of Curiau, formed by the afro-brazilians descendants of an old quilombo of Affican slaves in the XVIII century. The community is constituted by the Village of Curiau de Dentro and Curiau de Fora located in the Environmental Protected Area of Curiau (APA of Curiau River), at 10 km north from the Macapa City, between the parallels 00° 00' N e 00° 15' N, and meridian 51° 00' W. The community has valuable knowledge in relation to the use and handling of medicinal plants, but the urban expansion of Macapa, the real estate speculation and the migration process are causing a disorderly increase of the population and ground occupation and such culture is dying. This work has the objective to recover and document the traditional knowledge related to the use of medicinal plants by the community of Curiau through the botanical classification, practical use, aiming to help chemical, biological, agronomical and pharmaceutical studies, for the application and use by the common population and to trace the social-economic profile and its internai organization. In the field work for the ethnobotany, ethnopharmacological and socioeconomic data collection, the ethnographical method it was utilized with participant observation techniques, formal and informal interviews. The sampling universe was formed by 42 informants. The botanical material sampling was done by usual sampling techniques. It was registered 144 species included into 59 families and 121 genera, The most common families were; Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Leguminosae, Euphorbiaceae, Rutaceae e Piperaceae. The species with most number of citations were: Ouraíea hexasperma (A. St.-Hil) Bail var. planchonii Engl., Plectranthus barbatus Andrews, Dalbergia monetária L. f, Aeollaníhus suaveolens Mart. ex Spreng., Croton cajucara Benth, Citrus limonia Osbeck, Chenopodium ambrosioiides L., Phyllanthus niruri L., Carapa guianensis Aubl., Renealmia guianensis Maas, Ruta graveolens L., Cymbopongon citratus (DC.) Stapf e Bauhinia variegata L. var. candida Voigt. The data obtained at the Curiau showed that the community holds a rich knowledge about medicinal flora of the area and also reveals the existing botanical diversity at the APA of Curiau.