Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Eraldo Medeiros Costa-Neto

Titel

The Use of Insects in Folk Medicine in the State of Bahia, Northeastern Brazil, with Notes on Insects Reported Elsewhere in Brazilian Folk Medicine

Ist Teil von

• Human ecology : an interdisciplinary journal, 2002-06, Vol.30 (2), p.245-263

Ort / Verlag

Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers

Erscheinungsjahr

2002

Quelle

SpringerLINK Contemporary (Konsortium Baden-Württemberg)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• At least 42 insects have been reported as used in folk medicine in the state of Bahia, northeastern Brazil. These resources are distributed in nine orders, with Hymenopterans the most prevalent with 22 specimens. Medicinal insects, which are used live, cooked, ground, in infusions, in plasters, or as ointments, provide honey, nests, eggs, cocoons, sting, wax, and parts of their bodies for the elaboration of folk remedies to treat a great variety of locally diagnosed ailments. Most of the folk remedies are administered in the form of teas made using the powder produced by grinding the toasted or scraped part of the body of the insects or the whole toasted animal. Traditional knowledge concerning entomotherapy in the state of Bahia is very important since folk medicine is still one of the most important resources for discovery of unknown natural drug resources.