Plantas medicinais: o uso tradicional do povo Wai Wai na Aldeia Bateria

Abstract

Health care for indigenous peoples must be differentiated, as established by the legislation that created the Indigenous Health Care Subsystem (Law No. 9,836/1999) and the National Health Care Policy for Indigenous Peoples. Traditional indigenous medicines are widely used in healing processes, they are sets of traditional practices and knowledge that span generations and go beyond the scope of the biomedical model. With this, the objective of the present work was to evaluate the use of medicinal plants used by the indigenous people of the Battery village for the treatment of diseases, through interviews/conversations with the elderly. For this, the present field research was carried out in the village Battery, located in the municipality of Oriximiná and located on the banks of the Rio Trombetas/Mapuera and Rio Cachorro, whose place is inhabited by families that still live with their traditional characteristics. The village is made up of 153 villagers, the oldest (total of six) in the village being selected to answer the questionnaire. Among the plants mentioned by the interviewees, they were reported in the following order of use: Carapanaúba (Aspidosperma nitidum), Sucuba (Himatanthus sucuuba), Embaúba (Cecropia), Quina (Cinchona), Ginger (Zingiber officinale), Brazil nut (Brazil nut), Cumaru (Dipteryx odorata), Peppermint (Menta spicata), Timbó (Atelaia glazioviana) and Lemon (Citrus limon). The most common and used method for the treatment of diseases are teas, which are indicated to treat diseases such as diarrhea, cough and flu. Upon concluding this investigation, it was verified that folk medicine based on the use of medicinal plants is rooted in the culture of the Battery village and that further studies are needed to value the traditional knowledge of peoples to value the culture of traditional knowledge, passed on by the wisest old people from indigenous villages.