Avaliação do conhecimento sobre plantas medicinais e fitoterápicos entre farmacêuticos de um município da fronteira oeste do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The use of plants for health care is a practice dating back as more ancient civilizations. Phytotherapy is the therapy that uses medicinal plants, derived from plants or herbal medicines and which originates from knowledge and popular use. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), most of the world's population uses medicinal plants in basic health care being, in many socioeconomic realities, phytotherapy the only therapeutic resource available. WHO officially recognizes phytotherapy as a therapeutic resource and encourages its inclusion in the Primary Health Care Programs (PHCP), in different countries. In Brazil, the Ministry of Health (MH) has been working to encourage the insertion of herbal medicine in the Unified Health System (SUS), through the approval of public policies: National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices (PNPIC) and National Policy of Medicinal and Phytotherapeutic Plants (PNPMF). The implantation of the Program of Medicinal Plants and Phytotherapeutic Medicines in SUS in Brazil still faces many difficulties, between them: the knowledge that health professionals have about Phytotherapy is insufficient, being considered one of the main obstacles encountered by them for the implementation of Phytotherapy in the Family Health Program. Nevertheless, even with the preparation in their formation, pharmacists have performed little in the area, demonstrating the lack of knowledge necessary to promote the rational use of medicinal plants and herbal medicines. Often these have been sold in pharmacies and drugstores as being totally free of adverse effects and contraindications, even in the presence of a pharmacist, and it is often he who transmits this erroneous information. Therefore it is necessary to assess the degree of knowledge of health professionals on the subject, mainly among pharmacists, in the municipality of the western border of Rio Grande do Sul. These future actions to interfere in the basic and complementary training of the students will have the purpose of greater training and studies for the already active professionals with the users of the health services and pharmaceutical establishments, benefiting the users and improving the quality of their assistance rendered.