Mercados locais, plantas globais : perfil das espécies mais comuns nos mercados do mundo

Abstract

The use of medicinal plants is considered to be of great importance to a large part of the world's population. However, while some medicinal plants have their use more restricted to local contexts, other species are widely distributed in medical systems around the world. That said, local markets can be excellent models (showcases of biodiversity) for us to understand such perspectives. Within this context, this study has the following objectives: General: To identify and characterize the most common species in the local markets of the world and specific: To verify the variations of the therapeutic uses of the medicinal plants most present in the local markets of the world; characterize scientific production with local markets in the world; characterize the habit and botanical families of the most common species in local markets around the world. For that, a bibliographic review of ethnobotanical articles was used as a methodology. According to the recommendations of the PRISMA protocol, the choice of databases to search for articles were: Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science. Search rounds were performed with the keywords: medicinal plants, market, vendors, traders, ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology, in addition to an inspection of article references, to select and include new articles. The results showed that Brazil was the country that presented the largest number of studies related to the subject, this is due to the wide existing flora in the country and the extensive knowledge of the ancestors of this population. After tabulating the data, the seven most common species in the markets of the world were found, in which the Lamiaceae family is listed, with two species and the families Poaceae, Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Solanaceae and Zingiberaceae that have a species among the most common in the markets. It was concluded that the process of using plants in the medicinal aspect has a strong connection with the purpose for which these plants are being destined, and requires, among other things, that the active principles of each of these plants are respected. Therefore, it is recommended that there be knowledge about its active principles.