Um panorama dos fitoterápicos registrados no Brasil

Abstract

A phytotherapeutic is a pharmaceutical product derived from active plant raw material (plant drug or plant drug derivative), free from isolated substances, intended for prophylactic, curative, or palliative purposes. Given the need to present the current landscape of industrialized therapeutic options, this study aimed to depict the profile of the phytotherapeutic sector in Brazil. This research is a quantitative descriptive documentary study, with data collection conducted on the website of the National Health Surveillance Agency. A total of 334 valid registrations of phytotherapeutics were obtained, with 306 (91.62%) for simple phytotherapeutics and 28 (8.38%) for compound phytotherapeutics; 230 are registered as Phytotherapeutic Medicines and 104 as Traditional Phytotherapeutic Products. Regarding the profile of phytotherapeutics in terms of raw material, it was observed that the registrations for simple phytotherapeutics were related to 60 species, with 8 (13%) being native and 52 (87%) exotic. The most commonly used pharmaceutical form is tablets, with 145 (41.19%) options; the most frequently registered therapeutic class is anxiolytics, with 66 (19.76%) in simple phytotherapeutics and 7 (25%) in compound phytotherapeutics. The sector comprises 65 pharmaceutical companies distributed across the regions: Southeast (41, 63.08%), South (14, 21.54%), Central-West (6, 9.23%), and Northeast (4, 6.15%). It is concluded that, despite the National Policy on Medicinal Plants and Phytotherapeutics having been published almost 20 years ago, the phytotherapeutic sector in Brazil is still primarily based on exotic plants, to the detriment of the therapeutic potential of native plants, thus being incipient in terms of the utilization of native raw materials.