Local Knowledge and Use of Medicinal Plants in a Rural Community in the Agreste of Paraíba, Northeast Brazil.

The use of medicinal plants is an important source of therapeutic resources in rural communities and the wide versatility of some species may attract interest for prospecting studies. The aim of this study was to record and analyze local knowledge and the use of medicinal plants in the rural community of Malícia, municipality of Araçagi, Paraíba State, Northeastern Brazil, applying quantitative methods to calculate the Relative Importance (RI) and the Informant Consensus Factor (ICF). Semistructured interviews were conducted with 46 heads of households.

Local botanical knowledge of native food plants in the semiarid region of Brazil.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the local botanical knowledge of native food plants in three rural communities, located in the semiarid region of Paraíba State, Brazil, verifying possibilities of differences of knowledge among communities and between men and women.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews about native plant knowledge and use were conducted with all householders in each community, totaling 117 informants. The species similarity among the communities of Pau D'Arco, Várzea Alegre, and Barroquinha was compared with Jaccard index, and the use value index (UV, UV, UV) was used to determine the most important species.