Controle de qualidade e prioridades de conservação de plantas medicinais comercializadas no Brasi

Abstract

Almost all the world’s populations use medicinal plants, or their derivates, for the treatment of illnesses. In Brazil, these plants have been compounds of industrialized products that are commercialized in drugstores, natural product stores and supermarkets, under the designation of phytotherapic or vegetal drug. Considering that good quality is a requirement to ensure product’s efficacy and security, and that most of native medicinal plants commercialized in Brazil are acquired from wild populations, the present study aimed, in the first article, to evaluate the quality of medicinal plant-based products, and in the second article, to settle priorities for conservation to native medicinal plants with commercial value. It was made a survey of the medicinal plant-based products, coming from industries all over the country, commercialized in 54 commercial establishments from Recife-PE. In each establishment it was applied a standardized sheet with information about the product’s commercial name, plant composition, pharmaceutical form, therapeutic indications and the laboratory. The evaluation of 10 samples of horsechestnut, 11 of lemongrass and six of gotu kola was preceded based on the criteria established by Farmacopéia Brasileira and specific legislation; the priority for conservation, of the native medicinal plants, was given according to Importance Value Index (IVI), which is based on the Relative Importance (RI) and on the Sensitivity Index (SI). In the first work it was verified the absence of obligatory data in 92.59% of the samples, and a high impurity content in 59.26% of the analyzed products. In spite of this, all samples were considered authentic based on phytochemical and pharmacobotanical tests. It was verified that, besides the commercialized products lack adequate data andquality, there’s an urgent need of an effective supervision from the component organs. In the second work, it was registered 74 native species that are used in more than 300 types of products. Twelve species presented high versatility, of which 58.33% were trees. There is predominance of destructive collection (58.11%) and of taxa collected only from nature (86.49%). Intensive use of uniquely wild species and the destructive form collection are serious problems that threat and compromise this resource’s availability.