Ethnobotanic account of plants from the medicinal garden of Escola Superior São Fransisco de Assis – ESFA, Santa Teresa, ES

Abstract

Near 80% of world population use medicinal plants and half of all medicines used in developing countries comes from natural products. The remaining population (20%), resident in developed countries, also utilizes natural products as well as medicines derived from them. The traditional knowledge is an important resource for medicine development and manufacturing, with a number of antibiotics, sedatives, anesthetics, analgesics and laxatives deriving from this source. The medicinal plant garden at Escola Superior São Francisco de Assis was created to stimulate researches about medicinal plants, especially for those species, adapted to climatic conditions of Santa Teresa, and well accepted by consumers, that were medicinal plant garden of ESFA, and to make a catalogue including biological identity (official names), ethnobotanic characteristics, such as geographical origin, popular names, and traditional use indicatives. The account of plant species from medicinal garden of ESFA was made by their collection and their identification, based in comparison with the specialized literature and websites, and by photographic documentation. We identified 40 plant species, belonging to 28 genera, and 23 plant families. All of the species are shrubby herbs and the major diverse family were Lamiaceae (10/40 species) and Asteraceae (9/40 species). Concerning the ethnobotanic attributions, the major number of plant species cultivated in the medicinal garden of ESFA is indicated to disorders on digestory and respiratory systems.