It is known that the use of medicinal plants can improve health, and their study in Brazil is promising due to their floristic megadiversity, mainly in Cerrado, where several traditional populations live, and many endemic species can be found. From data obtained through interviews, this research recorded the medicinal plants used by 40 residents of urban and rural areas of Sobradinho (DF), situated in Cerrado, and evaluated their socioeconomic profiles. Rural women had a greater knowledge about medicinal plants. Most of the urban population had a full college education, while most of the rural population had not completed their basic education. Although the urban population also used literature, the main source of knowledge came from family members. The level of ethnobotanical knowledge was vast in Sobradinho and similar in urban and rural areas, where the interviewees cited 86 names of medicinal plants that corresponded to 126 species, of which 56.35% were native to Brazil and 43.65% exotic. All of the species were categorized into 48 botanical families, with Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Fabaceae being the most cited, respectively. Although they knew many native species of medicinal plants, the population used more exotic ones, such as mint, lemongrass and boldo to treat conditions such as stress, flu and indigestion, respectively.

The Brazilian flora is highly diverse, with the Cerrado biome featuring as the savanna with the highest richness of species in the world. Furthermore, the use of medicinal plants is a common and traditional practice among the Brazilian population. In that regard, it is expected that the populations of historical cities located in the Cerrado should have vast ethnobotanical knowledge. From this perspective, this study aimed to record the medicinal plants used by the inhabitants of Luziânia (GO), Brazil, and evaluate their socio-economic profiles. The inhabitants (18 from the urban area and 20 from the rural area) were selected by the ‘snowball’ technique and underwent semi-structured interviews that addressed socio-economic and ethnobotanical aspects. Among the interviewees, 74.4 % were women, with adults and older adults constituting the main connoisseurs, and 71 % had incomplete primary education. Most interviewees cultivated medicinal plants in their backyards and cited using leaves as the main plant organ for medicinal purposes. The interviewees from the urban and rural areas differed with regard to the form of obtaining knowledge (c2= 10,367; p < 0,05) since its origin was attributed to family transmission, reading, and from third parties in the urban area, whereas the rural inhabitants reported mainly family transmission. The interviewees cited 95 species, with no statistical difference between exotic and native species. However, the mentioned species were predominantly exotic. Lamiaceae, Asteraceae, and Fabaceae were the most representative families, and herbs were the most common type of medicinal plant. The most used species were Lippia alba (lemon balm), Menthaarvensis (mint), Dysphania ambrosioides (mastruz), and Plectranthus barbatus and Plectranthus grandis (boldo). The main health problems treated with medicinal plants were cold, indigestion, stress, and respiratory problems.