Comparison of the External Morphology of Medicinal Plants for Correct Identification and Use in Treatments Mike de Souza Moreira, Karina Faria Santos, Fabio Giordano

Abstract

Medicinal plants are still used as alternative treatments, despite technological advances and scientific studies in the pharmaceutical area, the existence of the planet's greatest biodiversity and popular culture are factors that contribute to the continuity of this knowledge that has been transmitted for generations. The present work aims at an analysis of the morphological characteristics of 10 different species of medicinal plants found in a field visit to the Plantarum Botanical Garden of Nova Odessa-SP. The analysis was done without the use of optical instruments and launched in the PAST software according to the binary combination, that is, 1 for characteristic present in the species and 0 for absent, presenting five groupings according to the Jaccard index.