Medicinal plants used by traditional community in Mato Grosso state – Brazil

Brazil stands out for being the country with the highest biodiversity on the planet. The tool which facilitates the study area for medicinal plants bioprospecting for development of natural products is ethnobotany. The objective of this research was to understand the diversity of medicinal plants used to cure diseases through local knowledge, in one traditional community in Nossa Senhora do Livramento municipality, Mato Grosso State. The study consisted in qualitative and quantitative research, through ethnobotanical studies, according to the knowledge of traditional farmers. For the field research we used camera and semi-structured interview. The selected study area was an old community that has experienced farmers in the use of medicinal plants. 22 botanical families and 34 genera were identified in this study. The botanical families with the highest numbers of species were Asteraceae, Lamiaceae (12%) and Liliaceae (9%). The diseases with highest citation index were: cold/cough, sore stomach and uterine infections. It was observed in some cases that the same plant is used to cure various diseases. The knowledge of these plants in the community is passed on orally from generation to generation.