The present study is part of a large research project on growth, development, nutrition, and health of Caboclo populations from the Brazilian Amazon. The aim of this paper is to analyze the age of menarche in adolescents (N ¼ 164) and adult women (219) in the studied populations. Caboclo are admixed rural, peasant groups that live along the Amazon river and its tributaries, and there are few previous studies about them. Probit analysis of the status quo data yielded a median age at menarche of 12.29 AE 1.76 years. The retrospective method was applied to recall data of the 77 post-menarcheal adolescents, yielding an average of 13.06 AE 1.27 years. Number of children in the family did not show any statistical influence on age at menarche in any age group. In adult women, age at menarche decreased from 14.50 in those born in 1930 to 12.88 for those born in 1980 (F ¼ 4.371, P ¼ 0.001). The downward trend found was, on average, 0.237 year per decade in the study period. The median age at menarche in the adolescents (12.29 years) is one of the lowest values found for Central and South American populations. In the ecological context, a low age at menarche could be an adaptive advantage because it provides a greater chance for reproduction at a young age in an environment where, until recently, life expectancy was low. As has been reported for other developing countries, the change found in age at menarche in the women born from the 1930s to the 1980s is likely to be related to changes in health and nutritional factors that occurred in Brazil because this country experienced significant improvement in living standards related to education, vaccination, and health conditions, which, although not equally, reached all regions after the 1960s.

ResumoO presente trabalho foi realizado na área urbana e rural da cidade de Santa Teresa, localizada no município de Santa Teresa, Estado do Espírito Santo, Brasil, com o objetivo de identificar as espécies vegetais medicinais utilizadas por benzedores e outros informantes. Um levantamento qualitativo, por meio de conversas informais e do método de observação participante foi desenvolvido junto à 14 moradores locais, escolhidos de forma aleatória ou pelo método "bola de neve". Considerou-se cinco destes moradores como colaboradores-chave por serem usuários de plantas medicinais, aos quais foram conduzidas entrevistas estruturadas e semi-estruturadas. O material botânico coletado foi depositado no Herbário do Departamento de Botânica do Museu Nacional (R). Registrou-se o uso de 62 etnoespécies, sendo todas Angiospermas e, em sua maioria, de porte herbáceo. Para a cura de enfermidades os benzedores fazem orações e indicam espécies vegetais, cuja forma de preparo mais comum foi a decocção e a parte da planta mais utilizada foram as folhas. AbstractThe present work was carried through in the urban and rural area of the city of Santa Teresa, located in the Santa Teresa County, State of Espirito Santo, Brazil, with the objective to identify the medicinal vegetal species used by healers and other informants. A qualitative survey, by means of informal conversation and of the participant observation method was developed together the 14 local inhabitants, chosen of random form or by the "snow ball" method. Five of these inhabitants were considered as keycollaborators for being usuary of medicinal plants, to which structured and semi-structured interviews had been lead.