Padrões de uso de animais medicinais por populações humanas no mundo

Abstract

The use of animals to treat diseases is common in different traditional medical systems, involving a rich diversity of animals. Such practices have diverse implications, including social, economic, cultural, public health and environmental aspects. This thesis aimed to compile information from studies on medicinal animals carried out in different countries around the world, seeking to comparatively analyze socioeconomic, environmental and cultural groups with distinct characteristics, and identify which patterns of use of medicinal animals are common to different systems of folk medicine. Additionally, on a local scale, it was analyzed whether the environments influence the zootherapic practices of a fishing community in Northeast Brazil where it is inserted. A review was also carried out on the importance of animals for public health. Thus, the thesis resulted in 3 chapters. In chapter 1, a general approach to the importance of animals for human health is presented; in chapter 2, it was carried out from a global review of publications on the subject and in relation to data analysis, and in chapter 3, the influence of the environment on the medicinal fauna used in a locality in northeastern Brazil was investigated. The first two chapters were based on data from the literature, and the second includes a metaanalysis of data compiled from 112 articles on the use of medicinal animals, distributed in 20 countries and 5 continents. Regarding the number of medicinal species, a total of 838 species distributed in 22 taxonomic categories are used in traditional medicine in the 20 countries where research was carried out in which mammals, birds and reptiles stood out as being the most used medicinally categories. From all medicinal animals, 147 byproducts are obtained that are used for the treatment of 410 therapeutic indications (diseases and/or symptoms). Among medicinal species, many raise concerns about their conservation according to the IUCN classification (66 vulnerable, 42 near threatened, 33 endangered, 12 as critically endangered (CR). The information in Chapter 3 was obtained through the application of questionnaires semi-structured, free interviews and informal conversations with 95 users of medicinal animals, which indicated the use of products from 22 animals as a medicinal resource, with a trend of use of medicinal animals occurring in the vicinity of the sampled location, showing that the environment it directly influences the choice of zootherapeutic resources and that medicinal use represents a strategy to optimize the use of resources. The thesis results provide data that suggest the trend and multiplicity of the therapeutic use of animals and may contribute to further studies aimed at the sustainability of the use of these resources, especially considering the implications ecological, pharmacological and also for the public health of the users of these folk remedies.