Institutional barriers to the traditional production of medicinal plants and herbal medicines as an environmental protection agent

Abstract

Medicinal plants are important natural assets for several cultures, mainly due to their use in phytotherapy. Having said that, in order to ensure the quality of products and to boost the advancement of the sector, a number of institutions were created as the result of the National Policy on Medicinal Plants and Phytotherapeutics. However, they pose challenges to the base of the production chain, which is constituted by strategic agents to the consolidation of this sector in Brazil. This paper highlights, through documentary research and comparative analysis, the value of phytotherapy performed by traditional communities as a critical point of success in the development of the chain, promoting opportunities for income generation, culture recognition and the conservation of biomes that provide genetic resources to the production of herbal medicines, proposing a strategic guideline for the institutional improvement of the sector from this perspective on.