Medicinal Plants in Afro-Brazil (BSAA Science Edition Fall 2024)

Brief History of the African Diaspora in Brazil

Enslaved people from many different African regions were brought to Brazil during colonization in the 1500’s. This forced displacement and removal of these people from their country and cultures of origin created the African diaspora in Brazil.

After slavery was abolished in 1888, Afro-descendants in Brazil (Brazilians descended from Africans) continued to face societal challenges: they were persecuted by discriminatory and racist laws and policies which attacked their cultures, religions, and communities. Consequently, Brazil is heavily racially and ethnically segregated. Northern Brazil is where the largest number of Afro-descendants reside due to colonization patterns and immigration policies which encouraged white immigrants to displace replace black Brazilians in southern Brazil.

MAP OF BRAZIL

Highlights several Afro-descendant communities in Brazil. The hotspots feature the name of the community, location, and a brief, non-exhaustive list of medicinal plants used in these communities.

Despite this geographical segregation of race, there are numerous Afro-descendant communities spread throughout Brazil. In part due to their separation from other parts of Brazilian society, many Afro-descendant communities have developed distinct cultures and lifestyles. Many of the more traditional settlements “depend on the local environment as a primary source of resources, especially plants for traditional medicine.”¹

An example of traditional Afro-descendant communities are the maroon settlements, which are also referred to as Quilombos. These settlements were often created by escaped or free slaves and continue to exist today. They and consist of “of Afro-Brazilian descendants who identify themselves as such with their own history, including African ancestry and an identity related to historical resistance to oppression.”¹

Important to note: not all traditional Afro-descendent communities are rural; there are urban Quilombos as well. Not all Afro-descendant and black Brazilians live in Quilombos or subscribe to tradition.

Race in Brazil

Racial identity in Brazil functions differently than in the United States, with “black” and “Afro-descendent” typically used to refer to those with explicit visual identification and/or a direct ethnic or cultural connections to Africans, as opposed to mixed-race Brazilians with African heritage. However, due to the complex racial history of Brazil, these categories are not explicitly defined and subject to vary in the contexts of politics and self-identification.

Plants in the Afro-descendant religion Candomblé

There is significant overlap between plants used for medicine and religion.

Plants play a large role in the religious practices and spiritual medicinal system of the Afro-descendant religion Candomblé. In Candomblé and many other Afro-descendant religions, “health is understood in a comprehensive manner, considering physical and spiritual aspects.”² Plants, in addition to people and animals, contain a sacred, spiritual energy called axé. Axé is crucial to life, and a deficit or imbalance can negatively affect one’s wellbeing. Thus, plants can be used to effect one’s axé for healing purposes. The healing properties of plants can be accessed not only through physical medicinal applications, but also through religious activities.

Terreiro Ilê Aṣipá by Paul R. Burley CC BY 4.0

Religious uses of plants typically occur in Candomblé houses of worship called terreiros. Terreiros are often located within Quilombos and other Afro-descendant communities. Many terreiros have outdoor areas where medicinal, religious, and spiritually relevant plants are cultivated on-site.

Relevant to the religious practices and use of plants in Candomblé are a pantheon of gods called orixás. Most medicinal plants are associated with specific orixás based on the plants visual and medicinal characteristics.

Ex: the cooling, soothing properties of poejo (Mentha pulegium) are associated with Oxum, the feminine orixá of running water.

Ossaim is the orixá of “sacred leaves”: plants with medicinal, spiritual, and religious significance.

Ossaim, the Orixa of “sacred leaves” by Tiago Lubiana in Public Domain

Plants and their axé are crucial parts of many Candomblé ceremonies and rituals. Sacred leaves are mixed together into a liquid called abô which is used in spiritual cleansing and purification baths. Abô is also used in the “making of saint” (initiation into the cult of orixás). Plants are also used as offerings, to ward off spirits, to dispel and absorb energy.

Filha-de-santo (Candomblé priest) holding leaves in her hand, possessed by Ossaim. Photo by Toluaye in Public Domain

Defining Medicinal Plants

A medicinal plant is a plant that has therapeutic and preventive applications or can be used to improve health. The comprehensive and interdisciplinary study of medicinal plants and their cultural significance and uses falls into the realm of ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, and ethnopharmacology.

Bioactive compounds are the source of medicinal plants’ therapeutic properties. All medicinal plants contain numerous bioactive compounds with varying effects on the human body. Due to this wide variety of bioactive compounds, one plant could have multiple different medicinal applications.

Functions of medicinal plants:

Treat specific ailments – ex: anthelmintic, anti microbial
Sooth ailments – ex: pain relief, poultice
Health improvement, enhancing function of the body’s systems – ex: supplements, anti-oxidants

Forms of medicine derived from medicinal plants:

Leaf tea
Chewing leaves
Dried leaves (for smoking)
Vapors (from leaves steeped in hot water)
Leaf juices and oils
Syrup (plant boiled & reduced)
Garrafadas (bottled medicine created by steeping leaves in sterilized water, white wine, of cachaça)

Medicinal plant usage methods:

Internal consumption
Topical application
Smoked
Vapor inhalation

Oppression of Afro-descendants in Brazil didn’t end when slavery was abolished. Cultural, religious, and traditional practices including the use of medicinal herbs continued to be suppressed and discredited and denied legitimacy by Brazil.

Now, traditional medicine is starting to be recognized by the Brazilian government: new health codes in Brazil integrate traditional and religious healing into healthcare practices. In addition to being legally recognized (and “legitimized”), traditional knowledge of medicinal plants is increasingly relevant in the field of pharmaceutical developments: “Investigations based on traditional knowledge present a higher success rate in the identification of plants with pharmacological activity in comparison to randomly selected species.”³

Citations

Agostinho, Adelaide Bela, Maria Inês Pires Neves Esteves, Natalia Hanazaki, Maria Corette Pasa, Olga Maria Duarte Silva, and Sofia Zank,. “Medicinal plants in cultures of Afro-descendant communities in Brazil, Europe and Africa.” Acta Botanica Brasilica 33, (Spring 2019): https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-33062019abb0163.
Hanazaki, Natalia, Tiago Santos Pagnocca, and Sofia Zank. “The plants have axé”: investigating the use of plants in Afro-Brazilian religions of Santa Catarina Island.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 16, (April 2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-020-00372-6.
Braga, Fernão Castro Braga. “Brazilian traditional medicine: Historical basis, features and potentialities for pharmaceutical development.” Journal of Traditional Chinese Medical Science 8, Supplement 1 (2021): 44-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcms.2020.06.005.

INTERACTIVE DIAGRAM

Showcases the effects of select medicinal plants on the human body

TABLE OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

Demonstrates a level of commonality within the medicinal plant usage of Afro-descendants in Brazil.

Source key:

1 = Ethnomedicinal survey of a maroon community in Brazil’s Atlantic tropical forest

2 = The Ethnobotany of an Afro-Brazilian Community at Sertao do Valongo, Santa Catarina, Brazil

3 = Sacred Leaves of Candomblé: African Magic, Medicine, and Religion

4 = Medicinal plants in cultures of Afro-descendant communities in Brazil, Europe and Africa

5 = The Use of Medicinal Plants by the Cultural Descendants of African People in Brazil

6 = The plants have axé: investigating the use of plants in Afro-Brazilian religions of Santa Catarina Island

Common Name	Scientific Name	1	2	3	4	5
Boticudo ou Mané-velho	Acanthospermum hispidum	x				x
Leopoldina	Alpinia zerumbet	x		x
Benzetacil	Alternanthera brasiliana	x			x
Cajueiro	Anacardium occidentale	x			x	x
Abacaxi	Ananas comosus	x			x
Graviola	Annona muricata	x		x		x
Margosa	Artemisia absinthium		x	x	x
Beterraba	Beta vulgaris	x			x
Picão	Bidens pilosa	x		x
Caiçara	Borreria verticillata			x		x
Folha-da-fortuna, folha-da-costa	Bryophyllum pinnatum	x			x
Mricí	Byrsonima	x		x
Pimenta	Capsicum frutesens	x			x
Mamão	Carica papaya	x		x	x
Embaúba, abaô	Cecropia	x		x
Mastruz, wormseed	Chenopodium ambrosiodes			x	x	x
Laranja-de-terra, bitter orange	Citrus aurantium	x				x
Folha-do-fogo, ewe ainã	Clidemia	x		x
Cansação, jojofá	Cnidoscolus urens	x		x		x
Cana-de-macaco	Costus spiralis	x			x
Papai nicolau	Coutoubea spicata	x		x
Cana-de-cheiro	Cymbopogon citratus	x	x		x	x
Eucalipto	Eucalyptus globulus	x			x	x
Cagaita, cagaiterra	Eugenia dysenterica				x
Pitanga	Eugenia uniflora	x		x		x
Jasmin-do-brejo	Hedychium coronarium			x	x
Ppurga-do-campo	Hybanthus calceolaria	x		x
Neve cheiroso	Hyptis suaveolens	x		x
Pinhão roxo	Jatropha gossypiifolia	x		x	x
Anador	Justicia pectoralis	x			x	x
Lettuce	Lactuca sativa				x	x
Cambara branca, cambara	Lantana camara	x		x
Cordão-de-São Francisco	Leonotis nepetifolia			x	x
Bibor felho	Malva sylvestris				x
Manga	Mangifera indica	x		x		x
Mandioca	Manihot esculenta	x			x

Data taken 6 different sources studying medicinal plant use in Brazilian Afro-descendant communities. Non-exhaustive list, and only includes plants mentioned in 2 or more sources.

INTERACTIVE PLANT PROFILES

Interactive booklet focusing on 5 specific medicinal plants:

Ruta graveolens

Capsicum Frutescens

Plectranthus Amboinicus

Hymenaea Courbaril

Hyptis Crenata

Demonstrates how medicinal plants can have numerous applications.