Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Avenida das Baraúnas, Campina Grande, Paraíba 58109-753, Brazil.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2011;2011:179876. doi: 10.1093/ecam/nep134. Epub 2011 Feb 13.
Animals (and their derived products) are essential ingredients in the preparation of many traditional remedies. Despite its prevalence in traditional medical practices worldwide, research on medicinal animals has often been neglected in comparison to medicinal plant research. This work documents the medicinal animals used by a rural community in the semi-arid region, inserted in Caatinga Biome, where 66 respondents provided information on animal species used as medicine, body parts used to prepare the remedies and illnesses to which the remedies were prescribed. We calculated the informant consensus factor to determine the consensus over which species are effective for particular ailments, as well as the species use value to determine the extent of utilization of each species. We recorded the use of 51 animal species as medicines, whose products were recommended for the treatment of 68 illnesses. The informant consensus in the use of many specific remedies is fairly high, giving an additional validity to this folk medicine. Eight species not previously reported as having medicinal use were recorded. The local medicinal fauna is largely based on wild animals, including some endangered species. Given a high proportion of medicinal animals observed in the study area, it is logical to conclude that any conservation strategy should include access to modern health care.
动物（及其衍生产品）是许多传统疗法的重要组成部分。尽管动物在全球传统医学实践中很普遍，但与药用植物研究相比，对药用动物的研究往往被忽视。这项工作记录了半干旱地区卡廷加生物群落中一个农村社区使用的药用动物，66 名受访者提供了有关用作药物的动物物种、用于制备药物的身体部位以及规定治疗的疾病的信息。我们计算了信息共识因子，以确定对特定疾病哪些物种有效具有共识，以及物种利用价值，以确定每种物种的利用程度。我们记录了 51 种动物物种作为药物的使用情况，其产品被推荐用于治疗 68 种疾病。许多特定药物的使用具有相当高的信息共识，这为这种民间医学提供了额外的有效性。记录了 8 种以前未报告具有药用价值的物种。当地的药用动物群主要基于野生动物，包括一些濒危物种。鉴于研究区域观察到的药用动物比例很高，可以得出结论，任何保护策略都应包括获得现代医疗保健。
