Pharmacy of medicinal plants and herbal medicines for common diseases in young children in quilombola communities

Abstract

This article presents and discusses healthcare in quilombola communities in Brazil, especially the use of specific medicinal plants for common illnesses in young children. Quilombola communities emerged in the 17th century and were created by Afro-descendants who fled colonial slavery. Quilombos are spaces of political, cultural, and physical resistance. In this scenario, a special culture of health and body care developed among the quilombola population, including treating common illnesses in young children with medicinal plants: respiratory infections and diarrhea. This pharmacy for children expresses well the power of resistance cultures for constructing knowledge and technology for healthcare. This pharmacy can guarantee partial or total autonomy from the pharmaceutical industry for quilombolas. Data collection took place in June 2024 in the LILACS, PUBMED, and SCOPUS databases with the following terms and their variants: “medicinal plants,” “Quilombos,” and “children's diseases.” The terms were chosen through consultation with the Health Sciences Descriptors (DECs) and defined through the development and testing of search strategies. During
the tests, when adding other terms such as phytotherapeutics, no records were recovered in the selected databases and, therefore, were not included in the strategy. It is concluded that the Quilombos' culture of resistance is a possible source of a healthcare culture independent of the pharmaceutical industry and the medicalhospital complex.