Uso e conservação de plantas bioativas em comunidades quilombolas da mesorregião do Sudeste Rio-grandense.

Abstract

The popular use of bioactive plants is an art that has been accompanying humans since the dawn of civilization, presenting an excellent tool for the promotion of health, income, and culture in many regions, especially for many traditional communities who hold this knowledge, but that nevertheless suffers serious risks of being forgotten. Thus ethnobotanical knowledge seeks to rescue and register this knowledge, studying the true relationship between man and plant, through the knowledge accumulated through centuries of close contact with their environment. The present work aimed to contribute to the knowledge about the use and conservation of bioactive plants in two quilombola communities of Southeastern Rio Grande do Sul Mesoregion through ethnobotanical survey Data were obtained through interviews, semi-structured and guided tours conducted from April 2015 to October 2017 in the Cotton and Cerro das Velhas Communities. The maximum number of five key informants per community was delimited and was performed through voluntary adherence and the snowball method. The mentioned plants were classified into use categories (human and animal medicinal, ornamental, toxic, spicy, soil indicator, handicraft and ritualistic), in the used part (root, bark, stem, leaf, flower, fruit and whole plant), in the forms of use (juice, gargle, plaster, syrup, tea, fomentation, maceration, edible and others). Regarding the botanical aspect was considered the habit of plants (arboreal, shrub, subbush, creeper and herbaceous. And for native habitat, introduced exotic and spontaneous exotic. The Cerros das Velhas community recognized 85 species and 42 botanical families. Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Myrtaceae, Rutácea, Malvaceae, Rosaceae and Verbenáceae stood out for the number of species. The category with the highest number of citations was Medicinal Human. The leaves were the most used part of the vegetable being the preparation in the form of tea. For the habit most plants presented herbaceous size and for the most predominant habitat are the exotic introduced followed by native. For the Cotton community 79 species and 36 botanical families were identified. Notable for the number of species were Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Myrtaceae and Rutácea. The category with the highest number of citations was Medicinal Human. The leaves were the most used part of the vegetable being the preparation in the form of tea. For the habit most plants presented herbaceous size and for the most predominant habitat are the introduced exotic ones. The data obtained showed that the communities have a great knowledge about bioactive plants, using for various purposes, mainly in the cure of diseases related to the respiratory and gastrointestinal systems. Both communities through their reports confirmed the strong link between territory and plant resources as they constantly struggle to keep the culture of their ancestors alive.