Utilização de plantas medicinais na elaboração de garrafadas para fins terapêuticos no semiárido brasileiro.

Abstract

Bottled drinks are generally a combination of medicinal plants used in alcoholic beverages for different purposes in folk medicine. Medicinal plants and bottles are among the main therapeutic resources of folk medicine that have been used for a long time by the majority of the Brazilian population in health care. In this sense, the main objective of this dissertation is to carry out an integrative review of the literature on the use of medicinal plants in the elaboration of bottles for therapeutic purposes in the Brazilian semiarid region. The following databases were used to survey the articles: Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (LILACS), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCIELO), CAPES/MEC Journal Portal and Google Scholar. The following descriptors and their combinations in Portuguese, Spanish and English were used to search for articles: “Bottles”, “Medicinal Plants”, “Therapeutic”. At first, the search for the descriptors was given individually, later using the crossing from the Boolean operator “and”. The inclusion criteria defined for the selection of articles were: articles, periodicals, newspaper, magazine and case reports published in Portuguese and English; articles that fully portray the theme referring to the integrative review and articles published and indexed in the aforementioned databases in the last ten years (2012 to 2022). The results show that the population of the Brazilian semiarid region has a historical connection with the use of bottles and medicinal plants. These plants and bottles are sold in almost all cities in the Northeast, with therapeutic purposes, healing pathologies and consolidating physical and mental well-being at a low cost, also helping the family income of the so-called healers. It is concluded that the huge range of purposes attributed to bottles is evident, from preventing pregnancy to the treatment of cancer. But it is important to point out that these bottles are usually composed of several medicinal plants that contain active substances that can interact with other drugs to potentiate or prevent certain effects, which can become dangerous or ineffective products.