Abstract

José Luan, Augusto Xavier and Pereira Mário Sérgio

An ethnobotanical survey was done in Quissmã City, situated north of Rio de Janeiro State, during the period of 2001/2002.The study was carried out to collect information of species of plants used in traditional medicine by local population, and compared this information with those found in European Patent Office (EPO) and Japan Patent Information Organization (JAPIO) in October, 2002.A total of 94 species belonging to 49 botanical families were listed. The most representative families were Myrtaceae (8),Asteraceae (7), Lamiaceae (5) and Solanaceae (5). A total of 91 patent documents on 18 species were described. From these results, it is considered necessary to intensify efforts towards investments in programs designed to ensure proper search, inventory, conservation and management of biodiversity, as well as a system for managing the related patent documents. It is extremely important to form multidisciplinary teams for researches involving patents and plant biodiversity