Thus, the solution to modify the panoramic decline of knowledge, above all in terms of nonconventional food plants, is not a simple measure. This solution may involve actions such as the inclusion of information regarding practices and traditional val- ues of local people in the school curriculum, which may encourage the appreciation and use of these species (Reyes-García et al. 2010 ; Cruz-Garcia and Howard 2013 ). In this context, the inclusion of some local species in the daily diet at school can help to break taboos. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage studies on nutritional value of these species.
A species that fi ts this situation is Sideroxylon obtusifolium (Humb. ex Roem. & Schult.) T.D. Penn., popularly known as “quixaba” or “quixabeira” in the northeast of Brazil. The pulp of its fruit has approximately 28 g of carbohydrates and a caloric value higher than 200 cal in 100 g (Nascimento et al. 2011 ). Table 1 shows other nonconven- tional edible species, often neglected, that may be introduced into the daily diets.
The importance of the species presented in Table 1 for the feeding of people can be understood if we consider, for example, the daily protein requirement of a male teenager: 52 g per day (Giannini 2007 ). Therefore, we can infer that the daily
consumption of 100 g of Syagrus cearensis fruit, for example, is enough to supply 17.21 % of this requirement.
These actions demand the active participation of local people to improve their livelihoods, reduce their dependence on external food aid, and ensure food self- suffi ciency and the sustainable management of these natural resources (Nyok 2001 ).
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Species Analyzed part Protein (g/100 g) Lipid (g/100 g) Carbohydrate (g/100 g) TCV (kcal/100 g)
Cereus jamacaru DC Fruit 1.8 1.98 9.76 64.06
Psidium schenckianum Kiaersk.
Fruit 1.64 1.36 26.60 125.20
Pilosocereus gounellei (F.A.C. Weber) Byles & G.D. Rowley Fruit 2.65 3.16 15.83 102.36 Pilosocereus pachycladus F. Ritter Fruit 2.10 2.66 8.72 67.22 Pilosocereus pachycladus F. Ritter Central core 0.25 0.53 4.75 24.77 Sideroxylon
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Ziziphus joazeiro Mart. Fruit 2.19 1.11 19.38 96.27 TCV total caloric value
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143 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
U.P. Albuquerque, R. Alves (eds.), Introduction to Ethnobiology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28155-1_22
Thiago Antônio de Sousa Araújo , Joabe Gomes de Melo ,
Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior , and Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque
Abstract Most biological resources employed in traditional medical system healing processes worldwide are obtained from whole plants or their parts. In this chapter, the importance of this resource for humanity will be discussed. In addi- tion, how investigations that employ medicinal plants as models have been important to traditional medical systems in the context of understanding and bioprospecting will be shown.
The use of medicinal plants has been maintained by human groups throughout history. In the past, naturalists described plant use by native indigenous groups of the Americas to treat diseases (Lee 2008 ; Ferreira Júnior et al. 2012 ). This use was not only restricted to the past: medicinal plants are currently used by several groups of humans and other nonhuman primates . In the case of the latter, it has been observed that chimpanzees use plants to treat parasitic infections (see Huffman 1997 , 2001 ). In addition, several records show that humans use plants to treat domestic animal diseases (Njoroge and Bussmann 2006 ; Mwale and Masika 2009 ; Silva et al. 2014 ).
The theme of medicinal plants is undoubtedly one of the most studied and dis- seminated in ethnobiology, which can be explained by (1) the interest it generates in other knowledge areas, such as pharmacy, botany, and agronomy, among others; (2) its relationship to a vital issue, which is health; (3) its relevance for prospecting products aimed at obtaining new drugs of interest to pharmacy or medicine; (4) its well-known and widespread use type among indigenous and local communities around the world; and (5) its use as a research model in ethnobiological studies to
T. A. de Sousa Araújo , Ph.D. (*) • W. S. Ferreira Júnior , Ph.D. • U. P. Albuquerque , Ph.D. Laboratory of Applied and Theoretical Ethnobiology, Department of Biology ,
Federal Rural University of Pernambuco , Rua Dom Manoel de Medeiros s/n, Dois Irmãos , 52.171-900 Recife , Pernambuco , Brazil
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] J. G. de Melo
Federal Institute of Alagoas , Rodovia AL 101 – KM 126, Centro , 57.955-000 Maragogi , Alagoas , Brazil
understand interrelations between people and the environment. Thus, this chapter will discuss the study of medicinal plants as well as theoretical implications and practices in ethnobiology.