Traditional knowledge about Amazon plants, which, for a long time, was passed on only by means of the elderly’s oral transmission, has aroused scientist’s interest. Amazonian researchers seek to prove and expand therapeutic benefits of species that live in the world’s biggest tropical forest. A few of them, such as andiroba (Carapa guianensis), copaiba (Copaifera langsdorffii), and more recently, ucuuba (Virola surinamensis) are targeted and investigated by researchers of the Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisas em Saúde [Group of Studies and Research in Health], from the State University of Pará (UEPA), who evaluate healing properties of Amazonian seeds.
A study presented last year, led by professors Anderson Bentes de Lima and Tiago Santos Silveira, from UEPA, demonstrate that ucuuba’s oil shows good results in the treatment of chronicles wounds, because it stimulates the production of scar tissue and fosters the formation of new blood vessels at the edge of lesions, which is essential in the process of tissue recovery.
The research focused on the study of excisional wounds, such as lesions by pressure, 3rd degree burns, venous wounds, leprosy and diabetic feet wounds. The importance of counting on resources which help faster healing is justified by the fact that these are injuries that cannot be sutured. And it is the oil extracted by the amazonian seeds, such as ucuuba, that is providing researchers with answers to that matter.
LABORATORY
However, attesting the power of Amazonian medicinal plants is not enough to transform them into accessible medicines to the population. Working more than 20 years in pharmacological research, Anderson Lima, one of the researchers and coordinator of the Laboratory of Experimental Pharmacology at UEPA, tells that there is a long way for the product to get to the final consumer.
“In the laboratory, we work with extracts and Amazonian essential oils. We study pharmacological effects on pain, inflammation and cancer. We study the safe use of those plants in models of toxicity. We begin the creation of formulas from medicinal plants, assessing their activity, and patenting them after that. Until now, we’ve been engaged in preclinical studies, so that, after approval of Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa), we may get to clinic studies, with humans”, details the pharmacist.
The ucuba oil study is in pre-clinical stage, but the researchers guarantee that results are promising. In the same laboratory, Lima says that the scientists are working in the patent of Sida Acuata (Malva-do-marajó) and Aniba rosaeodora (Pau-rosa) formulations as well as in the patent based on the açai berry seeds for the creation of orthoses.
Participatory ethnopharmacology
Another laboratory, at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), is also researching on Amazonian plants in search of pharmacological properties. It is the Liquid Chromatography Laboratory (Labcrol).
According to one of the Labcrol researchers, pharmacist Consuelo Silva, plants are studied chemically and pharmacologically there. For this purpose, the researchers use two approaches. “One is information that comes from traditional knowledge, from traditional peoples with whom we work in our region. So, we have accessed information from ten traditional communities in Marajó, specifically in Salvaterra, which have collaborated with us. It is beyond access, it is collaboration, it is participatory ethnopharmacology. There are quilombola researchers who work with us. In fact, one of them is coming to take his master's degree with us”, explains the professor. Ethnopharmacology is the science that studies popular knowledge about drugs, relating it to traditional systems of medicine.
According to the professor, the other approach, in addition to ethnopharmacology, is chemical study per se. “I am a pharmacist, so it is what drives my work: discovering new molecules to produce medicines, for example, to help treating chronic diseases that still have no cure. Or, even to replace drugs already on the market, but with many adverse reactions. Since we already know which molecules have activity for problems such as pain or fever, we look for that class of molecules in plants, already aware there is a high chance they will have the activity we are looking for”, says the professor.
Studying traditional use
Consuelo cites the plant named Raiz-de-sol as an example of one of the traditional knowledge of communities of Marajó. “They use this plant to cure skin diseases. So, we brought it to the laboratory and followed the same preparation they usually do: first extracting a liquid from it, just like as the extraction of tucupi, and after that separating the liquid from the starch. We work with those two parts, the liquid and the starch, to discover what there is in this plant, that they use for itching, wounds and even for bathing when they are ‘feeling down’, she exemplifies.
The coordinator of Labcrol, the chemist Milton Nascimento Silva, cites also a plant Varronia multispicata, known in Pará as Maria-pretinha. “It’s a species we have been working with, and which is already patented. Today, we are already developing a product, with anti-inflammatory and exceptional healing effects. We already know its chemical composition and today we are in the process of quality control and extract certification. Our laboratory will guarantee that it has chemical and pharmacological potential to be transformed into medicine, affirms the professor.
According to the researcher, the potential for new discoveries on Amazon is huge. “Studies say that only 30% of our biodiversity has already been explored. So, we are standing before this ‘green matter’ which has not been revealed to the world yet. How not to believe there is potential?”, he argues,
In this regard, the specialist highlights the necessity of investing in innovation, to accomplish the bioprospecting. “We, researchers, the academy altogether with public policies, but also the private initiative, we need to foment the idea of something new that exists and needs to be discovered”, he affirms.
Ensuring returns for communities
Professor Consuelo Silva reiterates there is concern about valuing participation of traditional communities in the process and ensuring that there is an effective return to them.
“Our desire is that this, returns, in some way, to these traditional communities, which have been our partners, in collaboration with everything we have here in the laboratory. We receive information from the traditional community, study it chemically, evaluate it pharmacologically and hope that this will return to them, in the form of a patent, for a product that, admittedly, arose there, from knowledge of their grandparents”, says the researcher.
The professor clarifies that the patent would be held by the university, with the participation of the communities. “There is a whole legislation that underpins this division of assets in the event that something that has been reported from a traditional community becomes a product. Our intention is, at the end of all this, to compensate them with employment, income, based on formulations that may emerge from the information provided by these communities, people who are already tired of taking part in academic works by providing information, with no return, a final product”, she analyzes.
Ancestral inspiration
The undergraduate student in Pharmacy, Regiane Vilhena, a quilombola from the community Arapapuzinho, in Abaetetuba, scientific initiation scholarship holder of Labcrol, from UFPA, says that her interest in the area of pharmacology comes from what she has learnerd from her ancestors. “All my knowledge about medicinal plants comes from my grandmothers. I had and still have the privilege to see my grandmothers using that knowledge with these plants, for example andiroba oil extraction used in inflammations and muscle pain or production of chá de Verônica, used for sitz baths used to ‘clean’ woman’s uterus”, she reminds.
Regiane reports that she decided to apply for Pharmacology to deepen her knowledge about medicinal plants. “And at Labcrol, I have the opportunity to do research in the area focused on my quilombo” she highlights.
The student refers to the partnership which is being signed between Labcrol and Arapapuzinho community and other quilombos in Abaetetuba for the ethnopharmacological studies. “In our work, we go to the place and talk to the specialists, those who detain traditional knowledge. We ask them about plants which they use to deal with diseases and they explain what they are, how they prepare them, and who can use them. All is registered, later, we study the plants in the laboratory to find out which compounds exist in the species and what explains their therapeutic effects”, she describes.
The student intends to write her undergraduate Final Paper (TCC) about medicinal plants used in her homeland. “Today I am a quilombola researcher that intermediate this process with the community. I want to defend my final paper with one report about those plants we used there, about how the knowledge is passed down from generation to generation and contribute with education actions, health and to generate some benefit to my community”, affirms the quilombola.
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIP
The production of Liberal Amazon is one of the initiatives of the Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Liberal Group and the Federal University of Pará. The articles involving research from UFPA are revised by professionals from the academy. The translation of the content is also provided by the agreement, through the research project ET-Multi: Translation Studies: multifaces and multisemiotics.
