Investigando a relação entre riqueza de plantas, redundância utilitária e diversidade terapêutica em sistemas médicos locais

Abstract

Over time, human beings have developed a set of knowledge in the health field, referring to the identification of diseases, causes and treatment strategies, which are important for their adaptation in different socio-environmental situations. Several studies have attempted to understand the dynamics of local medical systems from the perspective of resilience, as these are subject to disruption. In this case, it is relevant to indicate how knowledge of medicinal plants favors points of resilience in local medical systems, especially in human communities that depend on this knowledge for their survival. The study aims to understand the relationship between richness of medicinal plants with utilitarian redundancy and therapeutic diversity in 11 local medical systems located in northeastern Brazil. This analysis took place on two levels: individual, in view of the individual's autonomy to treat his therapeutic targets from the knowledge of medicinal plants, verifying whether the wealth of known plants affects the redundancy and the number of therapeutic targets served by the individual; and at the system level, verifying whether the total richness of plants present in the system can affect its redundancy, when all diseases treated by the system are considered. At the individual level, we find that utilitarian redundancy and the number of therapeutic targets are affected by the richness of plants. At the systems level, the plant richness did not affect values of utilitarian redundancy. We suggest that individuals increase knowledge about medicinal plants in order to meet different therapeutic targets and also guaranteeing different treatments for the targets. At the systems level, however, we suggest that the relationship between plant wealth and utilitarian redundancy does not occur directly, in which the plant richness may be favoring the redundancy of only some diseases, understood as the most important in the system, not favoring the degree of redundancy for the system as a whole. However, an increase in plant richness may be favoring a greater number of therapeutic targets served by the system.