Ethnoknowledge of riverside women about plants in the communities of Porto Novo and Cajutuba – Belterra, Pará
Traditional knowledge. Amazon region. Riverside peoples. Medicinal plants.
Ethnoknowledge investigates the popular knowledge of peoples and communities that manage natural ecosystems. The Amazon region is home to several traditional communities, such as riverine peoples, this population carries immense empirical knowledge about plants. This work sought to investigate the ethnoknowledge about plants of riverside women from the community of Cajutuba and Porto Novo, Belterra - PA. For this, a semi-structured interview was carried out with 20 women, 10 from each community, through a semi-structured questionnaire. The research showed that the interviewees in this study have a high ethno-knowledge about plants, reporting 125 species, distributed among food, medicinal, ornamental plants, for protection and used in baths.The presente work representes the first documentation of women’s tradicional knowledge about plants in these communities under study. Traditional knowledge about plants for these communities representes the main, if not the only therapeutic and food resource for the maintenance of health and primary treatment of diseases of these peoples, since these communities are far from the city. This research serves to disseminate the traditional knowledge of the riverine peoples, and can help in the sustainable use of the flora of the micro-region studied.