In humid areas, it has been more common to observe a greater use of leaves, such as in the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon, as well as in rainforest areas in Asia. From this perspective, the more ample use of permanent plant structures such as bark and roots has been often documented from drier areas, such as the Caatinga (semiarid region of Brazil), as well as in Savannah and Desert areas in Africa. The climate and the predominant phytophysiognomy (the main plant physiognomy or vegetation cover in a region) in a given region can also influence the set of traded species or the plant parts used. When observing broader temporal contexts, the changes in the inventory of medicinal plants can become more evident, as observed in Peru, where the local pharmacopeia has been changing since the colonial period. In other cases, it was possible to observe a relatively constant inventory of medicinal plants, with the inclusion of some new species over time, e.g., in La Paz, Bolivia, in both the short and medium term. Some studies in Brazil showed that overall, changes in the list of traded species occurred as a function of the temporal availability or the demand for certain species in the market. Several studies observed a predominance of the medicinal use of non-permanent plant structures, such as leaves. There it is possible to find these products traded and to observe variations with regard to both the plant parts sold and the inventory of available species over time. In urban areas, open air and public markets are some of the main sources of medicinal plants. Many recent studies in Brazil and around the globe have recorded the knowledge and use of medicinal plants, in both rural and urban areas. The knowledge about and use of medicinal plants are themes that remain one of the main study topics in ethnobotany. We identified an intermediate zone of knowledge and use of species commercialized between the studied localities. There were differences in the inventory of plants commercialized in markets in recent years. The presence and absence of the commercialized species do not seem to be related to the period of the year or the mesoregion. The absence of 88 species in at least one of the trading locations at some stage of the fieldwork was recorded. The Agreste, an ecotone area, was also the area where more species of other regions was found. The analysis of similarity showed distinct differences between the Sertão and all other mesoregions. Punica granatum, Zingiber officinale, and Myracrodruon urundeuva were the species with the highest RI. The most frequent families were Fabaceae (19 species), Asteraceae (12), Lamiaceae (11), and Myrtaceae (6). Thirty-five plant traders identified 163 medicinal plant species (151 genders and 76 families) and more 17 non identified species. The versatility of the species sold was elucidated using the relative importance (RI) index, and the set of species sold by each informant in each mesoregion was compared with each other by one-way Anosim and by the analysis of main coordinates. Interviews with medicinal plant traders were conducted in four mesoregions of different climatic and phytophysiognomic characteristics (ranging from Caatinga to Atlantic Forest). The present study evaluated the medicinal plants sold in public markets in different municipalities in the mesoregions of the state of Paraíba, northeast of Brazil, and the possible variations in the supply of these plants in the markets over the course of a year. Open and public markets are the main providers of medicinal plants in urban environments.
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