Plantas medicinais na percepção de estudantes de escolas públicas em São João do Piauí

Abstract

This article deals with the use of medicinal plants, knowledge and environmental education of students from public schools in the city of São João do Piauí. Medicinal plants are defined as any plant that has substances in one or several of its organs with properties that allow its use in the manufacture of chemical and pharmaceutical products (WHO, 1998). Ignorance of this topic leads to the possibility of intoxication due to the misuse of active principles of therapeutic plants, through their use in exacerbated quantities. Thus, this article aims to identify the level of knowledge of students from public schools in São João do Piauí about medicinal plants. Two methodologies were used to investigate this work: a bibliographic research and an exploratory descriptive study with a qualitative approach, which consisted of the application of a questionnaire with 15 objective questions distributed in three schools in the city, which 198 students from the medium. From this, it was observed that in the school communities surveyed there is no access or practical involvement of students with medicinal plants. At the end of this investigation, it was realized the need to create gardens with medicinal plants and to hold lectures about the benefits of using medicinal plants as well as the correct dosage and the purpose of each one, aimed at students and other people from the communities that know and do not know the topic as a strategy for valuing popular knowledge as important as this is the case.