Abstract
Local Markets and Medicinal Plant Commerce: A Review with Emphasis on Brazil. Local markets unite, concentrate, maintain, and diffuse empirical knowledge about plant and animal resources and therefore help guarantee the resilience and maintenance of folk knowledge concerning useful species. A critical review is presented here that focuses on the importance of these local markets, emphasizing the diversity of medicinal products offered, the different approaches to this subject, and the evolution of the research approaches taken in studying the medicinal plant products sold. To this end, the scientific literature was examined for research on these markets so as to provide a panoramic view of the different approaches taken, the diversity of plants being sold, the methodological procedures employed in collecting research information, and the specific nature of the studies. From our point of view, it is necessary to intensify the ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological investigation of these markets, especially with comparable methods and techniques.
Abstract
Mercados locais e o comércio de plantas medicinais: Uma revisão com ênfase no Brasil. Os mercados tradicionais são importantes por reunir, concentrar, manter e difundir o saber empírico sobre a diversidade de recursos tanto da fauna como da flora, sendo fontes imprescindíveis para a resiliência e manutenção do conhecimento acerca dessas espécies medicinais. Essa proposta de revisão crítica enfocou a importância desses centros de compras, ressaltando a diversidade de produtos ofertados, os diferentes enfoques das pesquisas realizadas e a evolução das abordagens ao estudar os produtos vegetais comercializados nos mercados. Dessa forma, realizou-se uma busca em periódicos para evidenciar o desenvolvimento das pesquisas com mercados intencionando-se uma visão panorâmica das diferentes abordagens utilizadas. Sobre isso, foram abordados: a diversidade vegetal comercializada, as partes vegetais mais encontradas nos mercados, bem como os procedimentos metodológicos para coleta de informações e a natureza desses estudos. A partir das análises realizadas, recomendações foram sugeridas para futuras pesquisas em mercados tradicionais: a realização de inventários locais sobre espécies úteis associado a comparações com informações já existentes.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the CNPq for financial support (“Edital Universal”) and for grants awarded to U.P. Albuquerque, the anonymous reviewers for their important suggestions that have helped to improve the quality of this work, and especially Robert Voeks for his valuable help.
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Monteiro, J.M., de Lima Araújo, E., Amorim, E.L.C. et al. Local Markets and Medicinal Plant Commerce: A Review with Emphasis on Brazil. Econ Bot 64, 352–366 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-010-9132-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-010-9132-1