- Felipe S. Ferreira1,
- Hugo Fernandes-Ferreira1,
- Nivaldo A. Léo Neto1,
- Samuel V. Brito1 &
- …
- Rômulo R. N. Alves2
1227Accesses
54Citations
4Altmetric
Abstract
In cities, the trade of medicinal products derived from animals, especially as raw materials, is concentrated in local and traditional markets. The lack of studies on commercialised medicinal faunas restricts an evaluation of the impact of this activity on the exploited species. Within this context, this work reviewed the literature on the trade of medicinal animals in local markets, focusing on urban zootherapy in Brazil and the social factors involved in these practices. Our results reveal that at least 131 species are sold for medicinal purposes in markets and open fairs in Brazil, but results obtained from statistical estimators suggest that this trade actually encompasses a greater richness of species. The medicinal animals sold in Brazil are used to treat 126 illnesses and/or symptoms. Despite the trade of wild animals, including species that are present on the list of endangered species, being forbidden in Brazil, it has been demonstrated that this activity remains common in some Brazilian cities, occurring illicitly and without due monitoring by competent environmental agencies. The results illustrate the need for further research, which should encompass a larger number of cities, especially in regions where information on this subject is currently lacking.
This is a preview of subscription content,log in via an institution to check access.
Access this article
Subscribe and save
- Get 10 units per month
- Download Article/Chapter or eBook
- 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
- Cancel anytime
Buy Now
Price includes VAT (Japan)
Instant access to the full article PDF.






Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alberti M (2005) The effects of urban patterns on ecosystem function. Int Reg Sci Rev 28(2):168–192
Albuquerque UP, Oliveira RF (2007) Is the use-impact on native caatinga species in Brazil reduced by the high species richness of medicinal plants? J Ethnopharmacol 113(1):156–170
Albuquerque UP, Lucena RFP, Monteiro JM, Florentino ATN, Almeida CFCBR (2006) Evaluating two quantitative ethnobotanical techniques. Ethnobot Res Appl 4:51–60
Albuquerque UP, Monteiro JM, Ramos MA, Amorim ELC (2007a) Medicinal and magic plants from a public market in northeastern Brazil. J Ethnopharmacol 110(1):76–91
Albuquerque UP, Medeiros PM, Almeida ALS, Monteiro JM, Lins Neto EMF, Melo JG (2007b) Medicinal plants of the caatinga (semi-arid) vegetation of NE Brazil: a quantitative approach. J Ethnopharmacol 114:325–354
Almada ED (2010) Sociobiodiversidade Urbana: por uma etnoecologia das cidades. In: Silva VA, Almeida ALS, Albuquerque UP (eds) Etnobiologia e etnoecologia: pessoas & natureza na América Latina. NUPEEA, Recife, pp 39–63
Almeida CFCBR, Albuquerque UP (2002) Uso e conservação de plantas e animais medicinais no Estado de Pernambuco (Nordeste do Brasil): um estudo de caso. Interciencia 27:276–285
Alves RRN (2008) Animal-based remedies as complementary medicine in Brazil. Res Complement Med 15(4):226–227
Alves RRN (2010) O comércio de recursos zooterápicos. In: Costa Neto EM, Alves RRN (eds) Zooterapia: os animais na medicina popular brasileira. NUPEEA, Recife, pp 159–176
Alves RRN (2012) Relationships between fauna and people and the role of ethnozoology in animal conservation. Ethnobiol Conserv 1:1–69
Alves RRN, Albuquerque UP (2013) Animals as a source of drugs: bioprospecting and biodiversity conservation. In: Alves RRN, Rosa IL (eds) Animals in traditional folk medicine: implications for conservation, vol 1. Springer Heidelberg, pp 67–89
Alves RRN, Alves HN (2011) The faunal drugstore: animal-based remedies used in traditional medicines in Latin America. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 7(1):9
Alves RRN, Rosa IL (2005) Why study the use of animal products in traditional medicines? J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 1(1):5
Alves R, Rosa IL (2007) Zootherapy goes to town: the use of animal-based remedies in urban areas of NE and N Brazil. J Ethnopharmacol 113(3):541–555
Alves RRN, Rosa IL (2010) Trade of animals used in Brazilian traditional medicine: trends and implications for conservation. Hum Ecol 38:691–704
Alves RRN, Rosa IL (2013) Animals in traditional folk medicine: implications for conservation, vol 1. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg
Alves RRN, Rosa IL, Santana GG (2007) The role of animal-derived remedies as complementary medicine in Brazil. Bioscience 57(11):949–955
Alves RRN, Lima HN, Tavares MC, Souto WMS, Barboza RRD, Vasconcellos A (2008a) Animal-based remedies as complementary medicines in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, Brazil. BMC Complement Altern Med 8(1):44
Alves RRN, Vieira WLS, Santana GG (2008b) Reptiles used in traditional folk medicine: conservation implications. Biodivers Conserv 17(8):2037–2049
Alves RRN, Silva CC, Alves HN (2008c) Aspectos sócio-econômicos do comércio de plantas e animais medicinais em área metropolitanas do Norte e Nordeste do Brasil. Revista de Biologia e Ciências da Terra 8(1):181–189
Alves RRN, Léo-Neto NA, Brooks SE, Albuquerque UP (2009) Commercialization of animal-derived remedies as complementary medicine in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil. J Ethnopharmacol 124:600–608
Alves RRN, Oliveira MGG, Barboza RRD, Lopez LCS (2010) An ethnozoological survey of medicinal animals commercialized in the markets of Campina Grande, NE Brazil. Hum Ecol Rev 17(1):11–17
Alves RRN, Rosa IL, Albuquerque UP, Cunningham AB (2013) Medicine from the Wild: an overview of the use and trade of animal products in traditional medicines. In: Alves RRN, Rosa IL (eds) Animals in traditional folk medicine: implications for conservation. Springer-Verlag, Berlim, pp 25–42
Andrade JN, Costa-Neto EM (2006) O comércio de produtos zooterápicos na cidade de Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil. Sitientibus Série Ciências Biológicas (Etnobiologia) 6:37–43
Apaza L, Godoy R, Wilkie D, Byron E, Huanca T, Leonard WR, Peréz E, Reyes-García V, Vadez V (2003) Markets and the use of wild animals for traditional medicine: a case study among the Tsimane’Amerindians of the Bolivian rain forest. J Ethnobiol 23(1):47–64
Ashwell D, Walston N (2008) An overview of the use and trade of plants and animals in traditional medicine systems in Cambodia, 1st edn. TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Greater Mekong Programme, Ha Noi
Athiyaman A (2008) An exploration into modeling sustainable consumption: the case of animal-based traditional medicines. Acad Mark Stud 2:16–23
Begossi A (1996) Use of ecological methods in ethnobotany: diversity indices. Econ Bot 50:280–289
Bennett BC, Prance GT (2000) Introduced plants in the indigenous pharmacopoeia of Northern South America. Econ Bot 54(1):90–102
Bérnils RS, HC Costa (Org.) (2012) Répteis brasileiros: Lista de espécies. Versão 2012.1. Available inhttp://www.sbherpetologia.org.br/. Sociedade Brasileira de Herpetologia. Accessed on 25 Oct 2012
Buckup PA, Menezes NA, Ghazzi MS (eds) (2007) Catálogo das espécies de peixes de água doce do Brasil. Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro
Ceuterick M, Vandebroek I, Torry B, Pieroni A (2008) Cross-cultural adaptation in urban ethnobotany: the Colombian folk pharmacopoeia in London. J Ethnopharmacol 120(3):342–359
Chao A, Chazdon RL, Colwell RK, Shen TJ (2005) A new statistical approach for assessing similarity of species composition with incidence and abundance data. Ecol Lett 8:148–159
CITES (2012) UNEP-WCMC. UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed species on the World Wide Web. Available in:http://www.unep-wcmc-apps.org/isdb/CITES/Taxonomy/index.cfm/isdb/CITES/Taxonomy/index.cfm?displaylanguage=eng. Accessed on 25 May 2012
Colwell RK (2009) EstimateS 8.2: statistical estimation of species richness and shared species from samples. User’s Guide and Application. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Colwell RK, Coddington JA (1994) Estimating terrestrial biodiversity through extrapolation. Philos Trans R Soc Lond 345:101–118
Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos (2011) Listas das aves do Brasil. 10ª Ed. 25/1/2011, Available inhttp://www.cbro.org.br. Accessed on 25 Oct 2012
Costa-Neto EM (1999) Healing with animals in Feira de Santana city, Bahia, Brazil. J Ethnopharmacol 65:225–230
Costa Neto EM, Motta PC (2010) Animal species traded as ethnomedicinal resources in the Federal District, Central West Region of Brazil. Open Complement Med J 2:24–30
El-Kamali HH (2000) Folk medicinal use of some animal products in Central Sudan. J Ethnopharmacol 72(1/2):279–282
Ferreira FS, Brito SV, Ribeiro SC, Saraiva AAF, Almeida WO, Alves RRN (2009a) Animal-based folk remedies sold in public markets in Crato and Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, Brazil. BMC Complement Altern Med 9(1):17
Ferreira FS, Brito SV, Costa JGM, Alves R, Coutinho HDM, Almeida WO (2009b) Is the body fat of the lizardTupinambis merianae effective against bacterial infections? J Ethnopharmacol 126(2):233–237
Ferreira FS, Brito SV, Saraiva RA, Araruna MKA, Menezes IRA, Costa JGM, Coutinho HDM, Almeida WO, Alves R (2010) Topical anti-inflammatory activity of body fat from the lizardTupinambis merianae. J Ethnopharmacol 130(3):514–520
Ferreira FS, Silva NLG, Matias EFF, Brito SV, Oliveira FG, Costa JGM, Coutinho HDM, Almeida WO, Alves RRN (2011) Potentiation of aminoglycoside antibiotic activity using the body fat from the snake Boa constrictor. Rev Bras Farmacognosia 21(3):503–509
Ferreira FS, Albuquerque UP, Coutinho HDM, Almeida WO, Alves RRN (2012) The trade in medicinal animals in northeastern Brazil. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2012:1–20
Freire FC (1996) Répteis utilizados na medicina popular no Estado de Alagoas. Monografia de Graduação, Universidade Federal de Alagoas
Hammer Ø, Harper DAT, Ryan PD (2001) PAST: paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontol Electron 4(1):9
IBGE (2012) The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics.http://www.ibge.gov.br. Accessed on 25 Oct 2012
IUCN (2011) IUCN red list of threatened species. Version 2012http://www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed on 05 May 2012
Jain S (2000) Human aspects of plant diversity. Econ Bot 54(4):459–470
Kang S, Phipps M (2003) A question of attitude: South Korea’s traditional medicine practitioners and wildlife conservation, 1st edn. TRAFFIC East Asia, Hong Kong
Lee SKH (1999) Trade in traditional medicine using endangered species: an international context. In: Proceedings of the second Australian symposium on traditional medicine and wildlife conservation, Melbourne, 1999
Lee RJ, Gorog AJ, Dwiyahreni A, Siwu S, Riley J, Alexander H, Paoli GD, Ramono W (2005) Wildlife trade and implications for law enforcement in Indonesia: a case study from North Sulawesi. Biol Conserv 123(4):477–488
Lev E, Amar Z (2000) Ethnopharmacological survey of traditional drugs sold in Israel at the end of the 20th century. J Ethnopharmacol 72(1–2):191–205
Lev E, Amar Z (2002) Ethnopharmacological survey of traditional drugs sold in the Kingdom of Jordan. J Ethnopharmacol 82(2–3):131–145
Magnino S, Colin P, Dei-Cas E, Madsen M, McLauchlin J, Nöckler K, Prieto Maradona M, Tsigarida E, Vanopdenbosch E, Van Peteghem C (2009) Biological risks associated with consumption of reptile products. Int J Food Microbiol 134(3):163–175
Mahawar MM, Jaroli DP (2008) Traditional zootherapeutic studies in India: a review. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 4(1):1–12
Marques JGW (1997) Fauna medicinal: recurso do ambiente ou ameaça à biodiversidade? Mutum 1(1):4
Mati E, de Boer H (2011) Ethnobotany and trade of medicinal plants in the Qaysari Market, Kurdish Autonomous Region, Iraq. J Ethnopharmacol 133(2):490–510
Menezes NA, Buckup PA, Figueiredo JL, Moura RL (eds) (2003) Catálogo das espécies de peixes marinhos do Brasil. Museu de Zoologia USP, São Paulo, p 160
Monteiro JM, Araújo EL, Amorim ELC, Albuquerque UP (2010) Local markets and medicinal plant commerce: a review with emphasis on Brazil. Econ Bot 64(4):352–366
Moura FBP, Marques JGW (2008) Zooterapia popular na Chapada Diamantina: uma medicina incidental. Cienc Saude Coletiva 13(2):2179–2188
Oliveira ES, Torres DF, Brooks SE, Alves RRN (2010) The medicinal animal markets in the metropolitan region of Natal City, Northeastern Brazil. J Ethnopharmacol 130(1):54–60
Paglia AP, Fonseca GAB, Rylands AB, Herrmann G, Aguiar LMS, Chiarello AG, Leite YLR, Costa LP, Siciliano S, Kierulff MCM, Mendes SL, Tavares V C, Mittermeier RA, Patton JL (2012) Lista anotada dos mamíferos do Brasil/Annotated Checklist of Brazilian Mammals. 2ª Edição/2nd edn. Occasional Papers in Conservation Biology, No. 6. Conservation International, Arlington
Pinto AAC, Maduro CB (2003) Produtos e subprodutos da medicina popular comercializados na cidade de Boa Vista, Roraima. Acta Amazonica (Brasil) 33(2):281–290
Rafael JA, Aguiar AP, Amorim DS (2009) Knowledge of insect diversity in Brazil: challenges and advances. Neotrop Entomol 38(5):565–570
Rose J, Quave CL, Islam G (2012) The four-sided triangle of ethics in bioprospecting: pharmaceutical business, international politics, socio-environmental responsibility and the importance of local stakeholders. Ethnobiol Conserv 1(3):1–25
Scarff FR, Bradley S (2002) Ecosystem function and species loss—a microcosm study. J Biogeogr 29:641–651
Shaw C (2009) Advancing drug discovery with reptile and amphibian venom peptides: venom-based medicines. Biochem Soc 31:34–37
Silva MLV, Alves ÂGC, Almeida AV (2004) A zooterapia no Recife (Pernambuco): uma articulação entre as práticas e a história. Biotemas 17:95–116
Silva VA, Nascimento VT, Medeiros MTF, Albuquerque UP, Soldati GT (2010) Técnicas para análise de dados etnobiológicos. In: Albuquerque UP, Lucena RFP, Cunha LVF (eds) Métodos e técnicas na pesquisa etnobiológica e etnoecológica. NUPEEA, Recife, pp 187–206
Sodeinde OA, Soewu DA (1999) Pilot study of the traditional medicine trade in Nigeria. Traffic Bull 18(1):35–40
Soewu DA (2008) Wild animals in ethnozoological practices among the Yorubas of southwestern Nigeria and the implications for biodiversity conservation. Afr J Agric Res 3(6):421–427
Sokal RR, Rholf FG (1995) Biometry. Freeman and Company, New York
Van den Berg M (1984) Ver-o-peso: the ethnobotany of an Amazonian market. In: Kallunk P (ed) Advances in economic botany. Ethnobotany in the neotropics. New York Botanical Garden, New York, pp 140–149
Van NDN, Tap N (2008) An overview of the use of plants and animals in traditional medicine systems in Vietnam, 1st edn. TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Greater mekong programme, Ha Noi
Vázquez PE, Méndez RM, Guiascón OGR, Piñera EJN (2006) Uso medicinal de la fauna silvestre en los Altos de Chiapas, México. Interciencia 31(7):491–499
Wellnitz T, Poff NL (2001) Functional redundancy in heterogeneous environments: implications for conservation. Ecol Lett 4:177–179
Whiting MJ, Williams VL, Hibbitts TJ (2011) Animals traded for traditional medicine at the Faraday market in South Africa: species diversity and conservation implications. Journal of Zoolog 284:84–96
WHO (2012) World Health Organization.http://www.who.int/en/. Accessed on 10 April 2012
Williams VL, Balkwill K, Witkowski ETF (2000) Unraveling the commercial market for medicinal plants and plant parts on the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Econ Bot 54(3):310–327
Williams VL, Witkowski ETF, Balkwill K (2007) The use of incidence-based species richness estimators, species accumulation curves and similarity measures to appraise ethnobotanical inventories from South Africa. Biodivers Conserv 16(9):2495–2513
Zhang L, Hua N, Sun S (2008) Wildlife trade, consumption and conservation awareness in southwest China. Biodivers Conserv 17(6):1493–1516
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the CAPES (Cordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) for the scholarships to Felipe S. Ferreira, Samuel V. Brito and Hugo Fernandes-Ferreira and CNPq (ConselhoNacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) for the scholarships to Nivaldo A. Léo-Neto and for providing a research fellowship to the Rômulo R. N. Alves.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia), Departamento de Sistemática e Ecologia, Centro de Ciências Exatas e da Natureza, Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB), Campus I, João Pessoa, PB, 58051-900, Brazil
Felipe S. Ferreira, Hugo Fernandes-Ferreira, Nivaldo A. Léo Neto & Samuel V. Brito
Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, PB, Brazil
Rômulo R. N. Alves
- Felipe S. Ferreira
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
- Hugo Fernandes-Ferreira
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
- Nivaldo A. Léo Neto
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
- Samuel V. Brito
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
- Rômulo R. N. Alves
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
Corresponding author
Correspondence toFelipe S. Ferreira.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ferreira, F.S., Fernandes-Ferreira, H., Léo Neto, N.A.et al. The trade of medicinal animals in Brazil: current status and perspectives.Biodivers Conserv22, 839–870 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-013-0475-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
Share this article
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative