Toxic plants from the perspective of a "Quilombola" community in the Cerrado region of Brazil.

A multi-disciplinary team surveyed ranchers at the Kalunga Historical and Cultural Heritage Site, in the Cerrado region of west central Brazil, to determine impacts promoted by toxic plants on cattle. The expedition to the Kalunga region was carried out by Brazilian and American researchers. Previously selected cattle ranch properties from "Vão das Almas", "Engenho II" and "Vão do Moleque" were visited. Twenty-four interviews were carried out with cattle ranchers and a questionnaire was applied to obtain information about outbreaks of native plant poisoning and their effects on livestock, and the use of local plants in phytotherapy. We classified problematic plants into three distinct categories. First, the toxic plants most cited by residents causing cattle losses were the flowers of Caryocar brasiliense Cambess ("pequi"), the fruits of Terminalia corrugata (Ducke) Gere & Boatwr. (Buchenavia tomentosa Eichler - "mirindiba" or "pau-pilão"), Eugenia dysenterica (Mart.) DC ("cagaita"), and Palicourea marcgravii A. St. Hil ("erva-café" or "cafezinho"). Secondly, other plants considered toxic, but causing less severe losses were Emmotum nitens (Benth.) Miers ("casco d'anta"), Indigofera lespedezioides (Kunth) ("timbozinho"), Ricinus communis L. ("mamona"), Pteridium esculentum (G. Forst.) Cockayne ("samambaia"), Stryphnodendron adstringens (Mart.) Coville ("barbatimão"), and Actinocladum verticillatum (Nees) McClure ex Soderstr. ("cambaúba"). The most important finding was the identification of the C. brasiliense flower as potentially toxic to cattle, which must be subject for future research. Further, we confirmed the toxicity and importance of P. marcgravii, E. dysenterica, and Terminalia corrugata. The survey highlighted phytotherapy plants used by the community, and greatly increased awareness by local livestock producers of poisonous plants for management purposes. We conclude that ethnobotanical knowledge, especially from the traditional community, is essential to understand livestock losses to toxic plants, and should be valued not only for reducing livestock losses, but also for cultural importance to the Kalunga communities in the Cerrado. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Ricardo de Castro Santos Paim, Luiza Gabriella Ferreira de Paula, Débora Moreira Soares, Tarik Fernandes Gonçalves Rocha, Amanda Lopes Ribeiro, Natália Barros, Fabrício Carrião Dos Santos, Heleno Dias Ferreira, Vera Lúcia Gomes-Klein, Benito Soto-Blanco, José Paes de Oliveira-Filho, Paulo Henrique Jorge da Cunha, Franklin Riet-Correa, James Pfister, Daniel Cook, Maria Clorinda Soares Fioravanti, Ana Flávia Machado Botelho. Toxic plants from the perspective of a "Quilombola" community in the Cerrado region of Brazil. Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology. 2023 Mar 01;224:107028

Mesh Tags

PMID: 36681279

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