The Medicinal Garden of the Casa do Lago Cultural Space was inaugurated last Friday (24), on the Unicamp campus. The inauguration took place during the last meeting of the Cultivation of Medicinal Plants, Ancestral and Scientific Knowledge workshop, held between April and June. The activity provided the exchange of knowledge and experiences about herbal medicines and the recovery of popular and ancestral knowledge about the cultivation of medicinal plants and their therapeutic resources. Around 40 people participated in the event, including members of the university community and external audiences.
The installation of the beds had the participation of indigenous students from Unicamp, who made traditional paintings of their ethnicities there, recording the presence of ancestral knowledge in the cultivation of plants. "I created a graphic representing indigenous people from the Alto Rio Negro, where I come from. I thought about representing a maloca, which for us is the house of knowledge”, explains John Abé, from the Dessano ethnic group. “The two pillars represent the central structure present in the longhouses, and the bench, the place where older people sit to transmit their knowledge to younger people", he details.
Wayttiran Cruz and Kawyran Pires also left their mark in the garden. Members of the Kariri Xocó ethnic group, Bokuya group, the students recovered a feminine tradition of their people. “This is a sacred painting of women of our ethnicity. It means that our body is safe, and it is made for us to participate in songs and dances", comments Wayttiran. The paintings were coordinated by the artist Silvia Matos. "It is a spontaneous work that shows the experiences of each ethnic group. It was a pleasure to contribute to them and suggest ideas in relation to painting technique", she says. The project also had the support of cultural producers Rosângela Martinhago and Flávia Sales.
Coordinator of Casa do Lago, Silvana Di Blasio celebrates the inauguration of the space. “We are happy with the installation of this set of medicinal plant beds, which have roots in indigenous ancestry and also scientific approval”. According to Di Blasio, other activities are planned for the second semester, such as theater, dance, cooking and storytelling. "These are activities that relate to indigenous stories and knowledge. There is a whole field of research to be explored", she points out.
Presence in pharmacology
The workshop was taught by Professor João Ernesto de Carvalho, professor at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCF), and by Mariana Nagle, PhD in Agricultural Engineering from the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering (Feagri) at Unicamp. They develop a similar project in the UniversIDADE Program, aimed at seniors. "We expected an older audience, but it was very diverse. We had participants in their 20s and 30s and retirees. The older audience is already a consumer of teas and medicinal plants, but younger people also seek knowledge received from their family, their parents and grandparents", reports Mariana Nagle.
During the meetings, participants had access to theoretical information about the use of medicinal plants and their health benefits and learned cultivation and management techniques. "The workshop focused on ancestral and scientific knowledge, which is why we used plants described by the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia, which already have developed studies and approval from the Health Surveillance", he explains.
"The majority of plant-based medicines available in pharmacies derive from ancestral indigenous knowledge. Scientific studies are provoked precisely by this knowledge", observes João Ernesto de Carvalho. Currently, around 30% of industrialized pharmaceuticals are based on compounds extracted from medicinal plants, and are present in a wide variety of medicines, from painkillers to drugs used in cancer treatments.
The researchers were careful to warn of the risks involved in consuming plant species that have not yet been studied and without the approval of Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency). According to João Ernesto, disseminating scientific knowledge about herbal medicines is a way of valuing indigenous knowledge and combating false information and quackery in the supply of supposedly miraculous herbs.
"Plants were not created to give us medicines. Plants produce substances in their metabolism to defend themselves against insects, pests, fungi, and release aromatic compounds for pollination, among others. Eventually, some of them can serve as medicines and, therefore, , we need to know them", he argues.
