Abstract Several factors contribute to the resistance of some pathogenic microorganisms and this fact requires the search for new therapeutic alternatives. The genus Cyperus (family Cyperaceae) groups species that present chemical compounds of pharmacological interest, mainly with antimicrobial action. Thus, the present work was carried out to investigate the antimicrobial activities, antioxidants and the phytochemical profile of Cyperus articulatus L. and Cyperus iria L. Hydroalcoholic extracts (1:1, v:v) of the aerial and underground parts of these species were used to analyze the total phenol content and to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant activity against the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl). The ethyl acetate and chloroform phases resulting from liquid-liquid partitioning of C. articulatus and C. iria extracts were evaluated in antimicrobial assays and subject to high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-DAD) analysis. The chromatograms obtained by HPLC-DAD allowed us to identify four compounds: chlorogenic acid, catechin, quercetin, and quercitrin. The hydroalcoholic extracts of C. articulatus and C. iria showed a weak antioxidant activity with IC50 of 395.57 and 321.33 μg/mL (aerial parts), and 1,114.01 and 436.82 μg/mL (underground parts), respectively. Regarding antimicrobial activity, the chloroform phase of C. iria showed the best result at the concentration of only 31.2 µg/mL against the pathogens Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus. The ethyl acetate phases of the aerial parts of C. articulatus and C. iria did not show antimicrobial activity.

ABSTRACT The cultural importance of medicinal plants has been measured in terms of popularity (number of people who know a plant) and versatility (number of therapeutic indications mentioned for a plant). Previous works have provided evidence about some drivers of medicinal plant importance, such as attributes of availability, efficiency, palatability and taste. The present study tested whether local perception of efficiency, availability (ease of acquisition), palatability (degree of pleasantness), and taste influence the popularity and versatility of medicinal plants in two rural communities of Buíque, Brazil. Free-listing was applied to identify the medicinal plants known/utilized in the communities, while semi-structured interviews were performed to collect more information about the plants. Informants participated in exercises to score the plant-parts that they knew and used. Statistical analysis was performed through multiple linear regressions, with none of the models retaining all variables as explanatory for popularity and versatility. However, availability and efficiency jointly explained versatility in one of the communities, while palatability was inversely related to versatility and popularity in the other. This study demonstrated that the studied individuals select plants differently, which makes exposing the driving forces of such differences a challenge.

ABSTRACT The similarity in traditional knowledge of medicinal plants was evaluated to draw inferences about the most important models for local knowledge transmission. The following questions were addressed: (1) Do related individuals possess greater similarity in knowledge of medicinal plants than unrelated individuals? (2) Do related individuals of the same generation possess greater similarity in knowledge than do related individuals of different generations? Semi-structured interviews were conducted on the medicinal plants known by the residents of a rural community in western Bahia. Mann-Whitney tests were used to compare Jaccard similarity values between related and unrelated individuals and between relatives of the same generation and relatives of different generations. Related individuals were found to have more similar knowledge than unrelated individuals, and relatives of the same generation were found to have more similar knowledge than relatives of different generations. These findings suggest that there are factors that favor cultural transmission between relatives of the same generation other than just vertical transmission.

ABSTRACT The aim of this work was to determine whether socioeconomic factors explain the importance of culturally salient plants to social-ecological systems. Extractive communities of the Araripe-Apodi Environmental Protection Area in Northeast Brazil were studied, and a random sample of the population was selected. Quantitative variables (education, age and income) were analyzed using Spearman correlations, while categorical variables (gender and occupation) were analyzed using Mann-Whitney tests. Relationships between socioeconomic factors and the importance of culturally salient plants were all weak. Nevertheless, age influenced the local importance of the largest number of species. Other factors not considered in this study (historical, cultural, ecological, and psychological) may be outstanding predictors of the importance of culturally salient plants and should be studied in future investigations.

ABSTRACT The ethnobotanical literature lacks joint analyses of the factors that may influence the differential use of medicinal plants. This study intends to fill that void by evaluating the local criteria for the differential use of medicinal plants in a rural community in Northeastern Brazil. We chose two health problems (influenza and constipation) characterized as diseases by local (emic) classification to address the following hypotheses: (1) the most important medicinal plants are easier to acquire; (2) the most important medicinal plants are perceived as being more efficient; and (3) the most important medicinal plants taste better (greater palatability). The plants mentioned in interviews were ranked according to the perception of their use (dependent variable), the difficulty of their acquisition, their taste and their efficiency (independent variables). The perceived efficiency explained the use of medicinal plants for both diseases, while taste explained the use only for constipation. The final models for ‘influenza’ contained only efficiency, while those for ‘constipation’ contained all three variables. These findings indicate that medicinal categories many not be homogeneous and that different targets may be influenced by different variables.

ABSTRACT The increasing loss of local ecological knowledge may have negative impacts on the resilience of socio-ecological systems and may also negatively impact bioprospecting efforts, since local ecological knowledge is an important source of information for searching new drugs. Recent studies try to evaluate whether communities are experiencing loss of local ecological knowledge. However, some of them make conclusions which are erroneously based on specific analyses of a single indicator. We propose an integrative analysis of three indicators, namely: number of plants cited by young people and elders, therapeutic choices and people's connectance in terms of medicinal plant learning. The study was carried out in the community of Sucruiuzinho (Bahia, Brazil). We conducted semistructured interviews and a therapeutic recall with 24 local dwellers. We did not find evidence of local ecological knowledge loss in the studied community. Although younger people know fewer plants, they are well connected in terms of knowledge transmission. Moreover, in illness events, young people and adults have similar proportions of choice for plants when compared to allopathy. Concomitant use of the three indicators leads to a more realistic scenario of local ecological knowledge loss than the use of only one of them.

Ethnopharmacological and ethnobotanical approaches are described in the literature as efficient to identify plants of interest for phytochemical and pharmacological studies. In the present work, we reflect on the quality of the data collected in ethno-directed studies. In accordance to the problems identified in published studies, and their theoretical and methodological underpinnings, we believe that these studies are poorly suited to contribute to the advancement of research aimed at the development of novel drugs.