SCREENING OF SOME BRAZILIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS WITH THE BRINE SHRIMP ASSAY^*

The Island of Santa Catarina in Southern Brazil was colonized in the XVII century by Acorians. The influence of African slaves in local culture was also very strong and more recently the migration from rural areas to the cities brought new habits and also exotic medicinal plants to the island (Freire, 1996). Probably due to the influence of migration, some traditional plants are being renamed after medicines (Anador®, a dipyrone preparation) and drugs (“penicilina”), a trend observed also in other regions of Brazil.

Some districts still keep the old traditions, specially the fishermen villages' Costa da Lagoa and Ribeirão da Ilha, whose traditional medicine practices were recently the object of investigations. Research projects have registered about hundred medicinal species as being used in the island (Pagliarini, 1995; Freire, 1996). In the present work extracts of 13 medicinal plants were evaluated with the brine shrimp assay in order to select promising species for chemical and pharmacological investigation.