Yvis Silva De Castro1, Juliana Silva Pereira Santos1, Stela Bersan Faustino1, Cristhian Gomes Cardeal Martos1, Gabriel Bastos Teixeira2 and Aline Oliveira da Conceição3*
1Departamento de Ciências da Saúde, Colegiado de Medicina - Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Jorge Amado, Bahia, Brazil
2Departamento de Ciências da Saúde, Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde - Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Jorge Amado, Bahia, Brazil
3Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Jorge Amado, Bahia, Brazil
*Corresponding Author: Aline Oliveira da Conceição, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Jorge Amado, Bahia, Brazil.
Received: October 21, 2020; Published: November 18, 2020
The indiscriminate use and market of medicinal plants and herbal products is a reality in Brazil. Despite the preventive measures that already regulate this use, they do not reach all the communities. Therefore, investigations on the use of medicinal plants or herbal medicines in pregnancy are of fundamental need to help in the establishment of pharmacovigilance norms. The objective of this study was to investigate the sale of medicinal plants and herbal medicines in the city of Ilhéus, Bahia and the consumption of plants by women served in the municipal maternity ward. A qualitative and descriptive study was carried out, through field research, using a semi-structured questionnaire that addressed socioeconomic and ethnobotanical aspects. Herbalists and sellers in the local market were also interviewed about the presence of medicinal plants and herbal products with teratogenic potential in their establishments. In total, 19 individuals were invited to participate in the research, six sellers of medicinal plants and 13 women who gave birth in the local maternity ward. The results showed that medicinal plants with teratogenic potential are easily marketed in the municipality of Ilhéus. However, no teratogenic effects related to medicinal plants or previous high consumption of medicinal plants were mentioned. Despite the low evidence of harmful effects in this study, the fact that the plants are being sold freely in the local market shows the need of pharmacovigilance and education in natural products for professionals in local public health.
Keywords:Toxicity; Pregnancy; Over-The-Counter; Natural Products; Vulnerability
Citation: Aline Oliveira da Conceição., et al. “Trade of Medicinal Plants and Herbal Products with Teratogenic Potential and their Consumption during Pregnancy".Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 4.12 (2020): 35-44.
Copyright: © 2020 Aline Oliveira da Conceição., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.