Knowledge about phytotherapy of nutrition students from a university in Grande Florianópolis

Abstract

Introduction: Phytotherapy is the term given to the use of active plant compounds or plant derivatives for therapeutic purposes, a practice spread worldwide. Every nutritionist can use medicinal plants as a complement to a dietary prescription. However, plants have compounds with pharmacological action, which can cause from organic imbalance to high degree toxicity in the human body, if dosed wrongly and not administrated appropriately, which highlights the need for education on the subject for Nutrition students. Objective: To evaluate the knowledge about Phytotherapy of Nutrition students from a university in Grande Florianópolis. Method: The data was collected through a semi-structured questionnaire based on the work of Moura et al.¹², applied to 72 Nutrition students. Results: 80.56% of the participants know the concept of Phytotherapy, but only 11.11% (n=8) were able to correctly distinguish herbal medicines from medicinal plants. As for the knowledge on the indication of medicinal plants, 98.61% (n=71) of the participants knew Chamomile (98.61%), Guarana (77.78%), Guaco (56.94%), Valerian (52.78%), Maytenus (52.78%), Boldo (47.22%) and Mint (43.06%). Conclusion: The obtained results suggest that the students of the Nutrition course have some knowledge on Phytotherapy, however, this knowledge is not sufficient for safe prescription. Thus, it is recognized the need to discuss the subject in a specific discipline that deals with legislation related to the theme, indication, adverse effects, dosage and forms of use of medicinal plants.

Key words: Phytotherapy. Students, Health Occupations. Plants, Medicinal.