ETHNOBOTANICAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE DECOLONIZATION OF CARE: POPULAR HEALTH EDUCATION IN THE BRAZILIAN CAATINGA

Resumen

Debates on health in semi-arid territories have historically been shaped by the predominance of biomedical paradigms that often overlook the sociocultural and ecological dimensions of traditional knowledge systems. In the Brazilian Caatinga, rural communities maintain complex ethnobotanical pharmacopoeias and therapeutic practices that interact with formal health institutions in ways that remain insufficiently examined in the scientific literature. The objective of this study was to critically synthesize the literature on the relationship between ethnobotanical knowledge and popular health education in the Caatinga, analyzing how these processes contribute to broader debates on the decolonization of care in community health systems. Methodologically, an integrative literature review was conducted between October 2025 and February 2026 using four scientific databases. The search initially identified 252 publications, which were subjected to systematic screening procedures, resulting in a final corpus of 24 studies that addressed ethnobotanical practices, community knowledge transmission, and integrative health policies in semi-arid contexts. The results demonstrate the central role of medicinal plant knowledge in community-based health practices, revealing pharmacopoeias that include more than 180 medicinal species and are sustained through intergenerational learning processes mediated by local healers, herbalists, and midwives. The analysis also highlights the role of popular health education as a mechanism of epistemic mediation capable of fostering dialogue between traditional knowledge systems and institutional health frameworks. However, the literature reveals persistent tensions in the institutional recognition of these practices, as biomedical validation criteria often reshape traditional knowledge within hierarchical epistemological frameworks. The study concludes that strengthening intercultural health policies and recognizing community knowledge systems are essential steps toward constructing more pluralistic and socially responsive health governance models in semi-arid territories.