MEDICINAL PLANTS FOR SYMPTOMATIC TREATMENT OF COVID-19 IN TENOSIQUE, TABASCO, MEXICO

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) named COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease 2019) on February 11, 2020, the disease caused by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, finally announced the pandemic on March 11 of the same year. The objective was to identify the medicinal plants used for the symptomatic treatment of COVID-19 in the city of Tenosique Tabasco, Mexico. Eighty interviews were applied through the snowball technique until the saturation of mention of species, finally the plants were collected in homegardens for taxonomic identification. The interviewees mentioned 24 medicinal plants, the most important species based on the degree of consensus of the informants (IF ? 20%) were creole guava (Psidium guajava L.), momo (Piper auritum Kunth), creole Lemon (Citrus aurantifolia (Christm) Swingle), ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe), cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume), garlic (Allium sativum L.) and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus Labill). The main sites for obtaining plants were public markets (12 species) and homegardens (11 species). The results show the importance of homegardens as an asset or natural capital because it helped reduce the vulnerability of families in the pandemic, allowing to observe a process of socialization on the use of medicinal plants as an alternative to control and prevent the symptoms caused by the spread of the virus.