ETHNOBOTANY IN BRAZIL - A BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY (2010-2020)

Abstract

Ethnobotany consists of the study of the existing affinity between human communities and plant resources, based on the knowledge of the past and the present. Several researches have focused on ethnobotanical studies in Brazil, seeking to have information that guides studies with the aim of consolidating this area of science. The present work aims to provide a theoretical contribution to scientific production using bibliometric indicators, in order to demonstrate the current arrangement of Ethnobotanical studies in Brazil. The study was based on a survey of scientific articles published from 2010 to 2020 in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The work was divided into two sections. In Section I, indicators and descriptive statistics are presented. Section II aims to categorize the articles extracted from the databases into: regions of the country; biomes; social groups and research purpose. Bibliometric analyzes found a growing number of research on medicinal plants. In the analyzes by categories, it was found that the Northeast region concentrates the largest number of works carried out. The North region is the second with more ethnobotanical studies in the decade. It also showed the lag of work in the Midwest and South regions of the country. The Atlantic Forest was the most studied biome in recent years in Brazilian research. In conclusion, the advance of Brazilian ethnobotanical research in the 2010 - 2020 decade suggests its great potential, especially for medicinal plants, as well as high ethnic knowledge of plants in their biomes. Despite this, the indicators show that there are still gaps in the development of these studies such as biomes, regions, underreported social groups or with a significant lack of information. Overcoming this scarcity of information can contribute to the adoption of strategies in future ethnobotanical research in the national territory.