Abstract
This study focuses on knowledge of medicinal plants among the Caiçaras (rural inhabitants of the Atlantic Forest coast, Brazil). In particular, we examine the use of medicinal plants according to sex and age to reveal general patterns of Caiçara knowledge and use of plant resources. Data collected through 449 interviews at 12 Caiçara communities (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo coastal sites) include citations of 249 plants and identification of 227 species. We show the importance of introduced as opposed to native plants and of key individuals for the conservation of the Caiçaras-Atlantic Forest.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Alcorn, J. (1995). The scope and aims of ethnobotany in a DevelopingWorld. In Schultes, R. E., and von Reis, S. (eds.), Ethnobotany, Dioscorides Press, Portland, pp. 23–39.
Amorozo, M. C., and Gély, A. (1988). Uso de plantas medicinais por caboclos do baixo Amazonas, Barcarena, PA, Brasil. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Síerie Botânica 4: 47–131.
Anderson, E. F. (1986). Ethnobotany of Hill Tribes of Northern Thailand: II. Lahu medicinal plants. Economic Botany 40(4): 442–450.
Ankli, A., Sticher, O., and Heinrich, M. (1999). Medical ethnobotany of the Yucatec Maya: Healer's consensus as a quantitative criterion. Economic Botany 53(2): 144–160.
Balick, M. J., and Cox, P. A. (1996). Plants, People and Culture, Scientific American Library, New York.
Barret, B. (1994). Medicinal plants of Nicaragua's Atlantic coast. Economic Botany 48: 8–20.
Begossi, A. (1995). Fishing spots and sea tenure: Incipient forms of local management in Atlantic Forest coastal communities. Human Ecology 23(3): 387–406.
Begossi, A. (1996). Use of ecological methods in ethnobotany: Diversity indices. Economic Botany 50(3): 280–289.
Begossi, A. (1998). Resilience and neotraditional populations: The cai¸caras of the Atlantic Forest coast and caboclos of the Amazon (Brazil). In Berkes, F., and Folke, C. (eds.), Linking Ecological and Social Systems, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, pp. 129–157.
Begossi, A. (1999). Scale of interactions of Brazilian populations (Caiçaras and Caboclos) with resources and institutions. Human Ecology Review 6(1): 1–7.
Begossi, A., Leitão-Filho, H. F., and Richerson, P. J. (1993). Plant uses in a Brazilian fishing community (Búzios Island). Journal of Ethnobiology 13: 233–256.
Begossi, A., Silvano, R. A. M., do Amaral, B. D., and Oyakawa, O. T. (1999). Uses of fish and game by inhabitants of na extractive reserve (Upper Juruá, Acre, Brazil). Environment, Development, and Sustainability 1: 73–93.
Bennett, B. C., and Prance, G. T. (2000). Introduced plants in the indigenous pharmacopoeia of northern South America. Economic Botany 54(1): 90–102.
Berkes, F., and Folke, C. (1998). Linking social and ecological systems for resilience and sustainability. In Berkes, F., and Folke, C. (eds.), Linking Social and Ecological Systems, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, pp. 1–25.
Boyd, R., and Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the Evolutionary Process, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Capobianco, J. P. (1994). Mata Atlântica e imprensa, Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica, Fundação Konrad Adenauer, São Paulo, Brazil.
Chastan, L. (1975). São Paulo-Litoral norte: história e turismo, Ed. do Escritor, S7#x00E3;o Paulo, Brazil.
Coe, F. G., and Anderson, G. J. (1996). Ethnobotany of the Garífuna of Eastern Nicaragua. Economic Botany 50(1): 71–107.
Corrêa, I. F. L. (1981). A congada de Ilhabela na festa de São Benedito, Escola do Folclore, Ed. Livramento, São Paulo, Brazil.
Da Silva, J. M. C., and Tabarelli, M. (2000). Tree species impoverishment and the future flora of the Atlantic Forest of northeast Brazil. Nature 404: 72–74.
Dennis, P. A. (1988). Herbal medicine among the Miskito of Eastern Nicaragua. Economic Botany 42: 16–28.
Diegues, A. C. S. (1994). O mito moderno da natureza intocada, NUPAUB, USP, São Paulo, Brazil.
Elisabetsky, E., and Shanley, P. (1994). Ethnopharmacology in the Brazilian Amazon. Pharmacology and Therapeutics 64: 201–214.
Ferreira, L. C. (1996). Remanescentes de um pretérito mais que perfeito: controle social da conserva¸cão na Mata Atlântica, SP. Paper presented in the Ist International Symposium on Life Quality and Environmental Risks, UFF, Niterói, RJ, Brazil.
Figueiredo, G. M., Leitão-Filho, H. F., and Begossi, A. (1993). Ethnobotany of Atlantic Forest coastal communities: Diversity of plant uses in Gamboa (Itacuruçá Island, Brazil). Human Ecology 21: 420–430.
Figueiredo, G. M., Leitão-Filho, H. F., and Begossi, A. (1997). Ethnobotany of Atlantic Forest coastal communities: II. Diversity of plant uses at Sepetiba bay (SE Brazil). Human Ecology 25(2): 353–360.
França, A. (1954). A ilha de São Sebastião, Boletim 178, USP, São Paulo, Brazil.
Fried, S.G. (2000).Tropical forests forever?Acontextual ecology of Bentian rattan agroforestry systems. In Zerner, C. (ed.), People, Plants and Justice, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 203–233.
Girón, L. M., Freire, A. A., and Cáceres, A. (1991). Ethnobotanical survey of the medicinal flora used by the Caribs of Guatemala. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 34: 173–187.
Godoy, R., Lubowski, R., and Markandya, A. (1993). A method for the economic valuation of non-timber tropical forest products. Economic Botany 47(3): 220–233.
Hanazaki, N., Leitão-Filho, H. F., and Begossi, A. (1996). Uso de recursos na Mata Atlântica: o caso da Ponta do Almada (Ubatuba, Brasil). Interciencia 21(6): 268–276.
Hanazaki, N., Tamashiro, J. Y., Leitão-Filho, H. F., and Begossi, A. (2000). Diversity of plant uses in two Caiçara communities from Atlantic Forest coast, Brazil. Biodiversity and Conservation 9(5): 597–615.
Holling, C. S. (1992). Cross-scale morphology, geometry, and dynamics of ecosystems. Ecological Monographs 62: 447–489.
Hvalkof, S. (2000). Outrage in rubber and oil: Extractivism, indigenous peoples, and justice in the Upper Amazon. In Zerner, C. (ed.), People, Plants and Justice, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 83–116.
Johnston, M., and Colquhoun, A. (1996). Preliminary ethnobotanical survey of Kurupukari: An Amerindian settlement of Central Guyana. Economic Botany 50(2): 182–194.
Joly, C. A., Leitão-Filho, H. F., and Silva, S. M. (1990). The floristic heritage. In Atlantic Rain Forest, Ed. Index, Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica, São Paulo, Brazil.
Kainer, K. A., and Duryea, M. L. (1992). Tapping women's knowledge: Plant resource use in extractive reserves, Acre, Brazil. Economic Botany 46(4): 408–425.
Kuchli, C. (1997). Forests of Hope: Stories of Regeneration, New Society Publishers, Gabriola I., Canada.
Laird, S., Cunningham, A. B., and Lisinge, E. (2000). One in then thousand? The Cameroon case of Ancistrocladus korupensis. In Zerner, C. (ed.), People, Plants and Justice, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 345–373.
Laurance, W. F. (1997). Hyper-disturbed habitats: Edge effects and the ecology of isolated rainforest reserves in tropical Australia. In Laurance, W. F., and Bierregaard, R. O., Jr. (eds.), Tropical Forest Remnants: Ecology, Management, and Conservation of Fragmented Communities, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 71–83.
Lima, K. C. S. (1985). Ubatuba nos cantos das praias, Ed. Ática, São Paulo, Brazil.
Ludwig, J. A., and Reynolds, J. F. (1988). Statistical Ecology, Wiley, New York.
Magurran, A. E. (1988). Ecological Diversity and Its Measurement, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Marcílio, M. L. (1986). Caiçara: terra e população, Ed. Paulinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
Michon, G., Kusworo, H. F., and Levang, P. (2000). The damar agroforests of Krui, Indonesia: Justice for forest farmers. In Zerner, C. (ed.), People, Plants and Justice, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 159–203.
Milliken, W., and Albert, B. (1997). The use of medicinal plants by the Yanomani Indians of Brazil. Economic Botany 51(3, Part II): 264–278.
Moerman D. E. (1996). An analysis of the food plants and drug plants of native North America. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 52: 1–22.
Momberg, F., Puri, R., and Jessup, T. (2000). Exploitation of gaharu, and forest Conservation efforts in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. In Zerner, C. (ed), People, Plants and Justice, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 259–284.
Morán, E. (1990). A ecologia humana das populações da Amazônia, Ed. Vozes, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., Fonseca, G. A. B., and Kent, J. (2000). Biodiversity hot spots for conservation priorities. Nature 403: 853–858.
Mussolini, G. (1980). Ensaios de antropologia indígena e caiçara, Editôra Paz eTerra, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Nohan, J. M., and Robbins, M. C. (1999). Cultural conservation of medicinal plant use in the Ozarks. Human Organization 58(1): 67–71.
Oliveira, R. R., Lima, D. F., Sampaio, P. D., Silva, R. F., and Toffoli, D. Di G. (1994). Roça caiçara, um sistema “primitivo”auto-sustentável. Ciência Hoje 18(104): 44–51.
Pake, C. V. (1987). Medicinal ethnobotany of Hmong refugees in Thailand. Journal of Ethnobiology 7: 13–26.
Peroni, N., and Martins, P. S. (2000). Influência da dinâmica agrícola itinerante na gera¸cão de diversidade de etnovariedades culivadas vegetativamente. Interciencia 25(1): 22–29.
Phillips, O., Gentry, A. H., Reynel, C., Wilkin, P., and Gálvez-Durand, C.B. (1994). Quantitative ethnobotany and Amazonian conservation. Conservation Biology 1: 296–310.
Putman, R. J., and Wratten, S. D. (1984). Principles of Ecology. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Rossato, S. V., Leitão-Filho, H. F., and Begossi, A. (1999). Ethnobotany of caiçaras of the Atlantic Forest coast (Brazil). Economic Botany 53(3): 377–385.
Schlapfer, F., and Schmid, B. (1999). Ecosystem effects of biodiversity: A classification of hypotheses and exploration of empirical results. Ecological Applications 9(3): 893–907.
Seixas, C. S., and Begossi, A. (1998). Do fishers have territories? The use of fishing grounds at Aventureiro (Ilha Grande, Brazil). Paper presented in “Crossing Boundaries,” the Seventh annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Vancouver, Canada, June 10-14, 1998. (www.indiana.edu/~iascp.iascp98.htm)
Voeks, R. A. (1996). Tropical forest healers and habitat preference. Economic Botany 50(4): 381–400.
Whistler, W. A. (1991). Herbal medicine in the Kingdom of Tonga. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 31: 339–372.
Willems, E. (1952). Búzios Island, University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Zar, J. H. (1984). Biostatistical Analysis, 3rd edn., Prentice Hall International, London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Begossi, A., Hanazaki, N. & Tamashiro, J.Y. Medicinal Plants in the Atlantic Forest (Brazil): Knowledge, Use, and Conservation. Human Ecology 30, 281–299 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016564217719
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016564217719