The ranchers who live in Rio das Pedras Reserve, which lies in Mangaratiba County, State of Rio da Janeiro, came from sharecroppers who worked at the banana plantation of the farmer Goiabal farm. Nowadays, that farm corresponds to the Méditerranée Club in the area next to the Atlantic Ocean and to Rio das Pedras Reservation, above the Rio/Santos highway (BR-101), it is a remainder of the Dense Ombrophylous Forest in the State. The aim of this study was to collect information about the use of medicinal plants by the ranchers who still live in that Reservation. A survey of the plants, which could be found in the area surrounding their houses, was done through the use of structured and semi-structured interviews. In all, 36 medicinal vegetal speciesdistributed in 34 genera and in 25 families were mentioned. Those species are related to 28 medicinal uses, organized in seven categories. The herb species (21 species) prevailed, followed by shrubs (eight species) and arboreal (five species). The leaf was found to be the part of the plant most used and the mode of preparation of the medicine was the decoction. The number of citations by the informants for each taxon was quantified, making it possible to indicate the worm seed (Chenopodium ambrosioides L.) and pitanga (Eugenia uniflora L.) as the most used species in the area.
ethnobotany; medicinal plants; ranchers; Rio das Pedras Reservation
