HEALING AS A MECHANISM FOR PERPETUATING POPULAR KNOWLEDGE IN MEDICINAL PLANTS IN BRAZIL: A LITERATURE REVIEW

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.0159422404015

• Palavras-chave: Traditional Medicine Professionals; Complementary Therapies; Cultural Characteristics; Herbal Medicine.

• Keywords: Traditional Medicine Professionals; Complementary Therapies; Cultural Characteristics; Herbal Medicine.

• Abstract:

  The use of plants in healing rituals has a symbolic value of care and health and constitutes alternative and popular traditional knowledge in health care. In some cases, the use of medicinal plants is the only medical resource present in communities far from medical centers. Objective: to study the stimulation of the practice of using medicinal plants and the presence of citations about the importance of the figure of the healer and the healer in these activities. This is an integrative review of the literature, in order to investigate previous knowledge on the topic and build a critical analysis from it. A qualitative analysis of the selected articles took place, of which 21 articles were found in databases, however, only 6 were selected for further study, of these, only 3 mentioned blessing practices and healerism in their analyses, interfacing with the use of medicinal plants. Finally, medicinal plants and herbal medicines are truly mechanisms of great importance in the perpetuation of popular knowledge in Brazil. Furthermore, the figure of the healer was found to be a reference in care practices, in the management of medicinal plants and in the perpetuation of traditional knowledge.