O papel das plantas medicinais exóticas no tratamento de doenças da modernidade: um estudo no contexto de mercado em escala global

Abstract

Diseases of modernity are consequences of our lifestyle and interaction with the environment, whether they are new diseases (COVID-19), or diseases that have become more incidents over the years (cancer, depression, diabetes). These diseases can be complex for a local medical system, as it requires recognition of symptoms and appropriate treatments that may not be familiar to the population. This work is based on the assumption that exotic species are being prioritized for the treatment of modern diseases in medical systems, as they are more accessible through the context of globalization, bringing with them a set of information already validated by other cultures. Still, in the context of changing the landscape and cultural habits resulting from the urbanization process, we try to identify some cultural and environmental patterns of the use/insertion of exotic and native medicinal plants in medical systems in the treatment of these diseases. We had as the object of study the public markets. For this, a systematic review was carried out, seeking papers in markets worldwide, including a total of 33 articles. We analyzed whether there was a greater proportion of exotic species commercialized in treating modern diseases when compared to other diseases, for this purpose, we calculated the effect size (exotic species treating modern diseases and others) of each study from the Odds Ratio measure (OR), and then apply the random effects model. Later, we analyzed whether factors such as the average total vegetation cover within a radius of 10 and 100 km, distance from markets for vegetation cover of at least 5 ha and the rate of urbanization, influence the choice of exotic species when compared to native ones. for the treatment of modern diseases. To find out if such factors influenced the selection of species, we used a simple linear regression model for each factor. The results indicated that both modern diseases and other diseases have the same proportion of exotic species for their treatments (Q= 43.4255, p= 0.0857) and that neither average vegetation cover in 10 km (R= 0.03525, p= 0.7376), 100 km (R= 0.03836, p= 0.8443) and the urbanization rate (R= -0.03818, p= 0.8357) influence the proportion of exotic and native species treating diseases of the modernity. Such results may be influenced by the symptomatology of the diseases. Some modern diseases may share the same sets of symptoms with other diseases, which may result in the same proportion of exotic species in their treatments. Furthermore, markets are the result of different sources of knowledge and places, which makes them complex, and even more diverse than the local context, which may have limited our research. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out this research in local and traditional communities, as the results may be different.