Plants Indicated by Brazilian Indians for Disturbances of the Central Nervous System: A Bibliographical Survey

Abstract

Brazil possesses great biological and cultural diversity, above all, in view of the great number of indigenous ethnic groups -218 in all -that inhabit the five main biomas in Brazil. The purpose of this review is to analyze the relationship between chemical constituents of species utilized by several groups of Brazilian Indians and the uses/indications made of the species by these same groups using ethnopharmacological surveys by different researchers, as from the seventies. The 34 publications selected, involving 26 indigenous ethnic groups, showed a total of 307 species utilized for 67 different diseases or effects possibly related to the Central Nervous System (CNS). These plants belong to 85 taxonomic families, mostly Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Rubiaceae, Poaceae, Apocynaceae, Bignoniaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Solanaceae. The chemical constitution of these plants was researched as from the Pubmed and Web of Science and the information obtained was crossed with different indigenous uses, grouped in 12 categories according to similarities between their expected effects on the CNS: analgesics, to counteract fever, tonics and/or adaptogens, hallucinogens, anxiolytics, anticonvulsants, head illnesses, hypnotics, stimulants, weight control, memory enhancers, and others. Some phytochemical classes were observed to be more common among plants utilized for certain purposes: flavonoids (analgesia, fever, anxiety, hypnotic, weight control, and as a stimulant), alkaloids (hallucinogens, head illnesses, and as a stimulant), essential oils (fever and anxiety), lignans (hallucinogen), tannins (anxiety), triterpenes and saponins (hypnotic). These data suggest that these phytochemical classes possibly possess a greater number of chemical constituents that perform the effects described or that, in some way, assist in determining the use of the plant by the Indians.

Antibacterial activity of Waltheria indica Linn (Sterculiaceae), collected from Blouberg area, Limpopo Province, South Africa

“…Within Blouberg area in Limpopo Province, its roots are used to treat sexually transmitted infections, urinary tract infections, infant illnesses and heart problems. Elsewhere, roots are reported to treat ailments such as diarrhoea, fever, wounds, stomach ache and neurological disorders (Ayantunde et al, 2009;Rodrigues, et al, 2006;Romeiras et al, 2012). The whole plant is reportedly used in the treatment of diarrhoea while leaves are used to treat peptic ulcer (Mathabe et al, 2006;Oluranti et al, 2012).…”

Brazilian plants with possible action on the central nervous system—A study of historical sources from the 16th to 19th century

“…A review performed by Rodrigues et al (2006) raised some species utilized by Native Brazilian Indians, also analyzing scientific literature for these species. This study pointed out that species cited as "fever" display a greater occurrence of flavonoids, essential oils and triterpenoids; species cited as "tonics" display a greater occurrence of alkaloids, cumarins and triterpenoids; while the "hallucinogen" category (that in the research includes species cited as narcotics) displays a greater occurrence of alkaloids and lignin.…”

Plants with possible psychoactive effects used by the Krahô Indians, Brazil

“…Finally, in a recent review ar ticle concerning the ethnopharmacological researches carried out among 25 Brazilian Indian cultures (Figure 1), 58 plants with potential psychoactive effects were described, many of them being already studied by science. 11 This article described 25 plants as hallucinogens, 10 as anxiolytics, 8 for head illnesses, 7 for sleep disorders, 6 as antidepressants and/or stimulants, and 2 as memory enhancers, as shown in Table 2. While the Krahô Indians indicated 28 plants as hallucinogens, 15 as anxiolytics, 16 for head illnesses, 12 for sleep disorders, 10 as antidepressants and/or stimulants, and 6 as memory enhancers (Table 1).…”