Conhecimento de estudantes da educação básica sobre plantas medicinais

Abstract

Medicinal herbs have been used for ages to treat health issues and their significance prevails nowadays. However, we frequently notice the inaccurate use of these plants, which can be associated with the fact that public knowledge is not always allied and validated by scientific knowledge. The approach of contents related to medicinal herbs in the teaching of botany could contribute to the correct use of these plants. Nonetheless, medicinal plants are not always linked to the contents of botany in basic education. Given what has been said, the present work aims to verify if elementary students in the final years) of a rural school and an urban school know medicinal herbs, where this knowledge is acquired, and if they use it and how they used it) in unconventional medicine. The study was developed in two state schools, one located in an urban zone in Dois Vizinhos, Paraná, and the other located in a rural zone located in São Jorge D'Oeste, Paraná; as the second part of the research, a questionnaire was forwarded to elementary school teachers in the municipality of Dois Vizinhos, Paraná and proximities. Therefore, the research is qualitative and quantitative. The results allowed us to conclude that, within the scope of this research, students know what medicinal plants are, they gathered knowledge about them mainly through common and family knowledge and use the herbs mainly in tea preparations. Furthermore, a significant number of medicinal plants (20) is used by these students, especially Asteraceae and Lamiaceae. In addition, Science teachers of this research work on the topic of medicinal herbs, but solely in a punctual way, without going too deeply on the matter. Finally, medicinal plants are more discussed in rural schools than in urban schools. Overall, it may be said that the approach of medicinal herbs can still be improved, considering the numerous possibilities they provide as tools for botany teaching and their usage and importance as an alternative for health treatments.