Medicinal plants constitute a very rich source of natural inhibitors of animal toxins, and may be used: 1) to study the mechanism of action of toxins and inhibitors; 2) to treat ophidian envenomation as a supplementary and/or alternative therapy; and 3) as models to design new drugs of interest in clinical medicine. Several Brazilian plants have been utilized in folk medicine as antiophidians. However, only a few species have been scientifically investigated and still fewer have had their active components isolated and characterized both structurally and functionally. This article presents a review of Brazilian species showing neutralizing properties against snake venoms which have been assayed in the research laboratory and characterized ethnopharmacologically in terms of: 1) the part of the plant used as antidote; 2) the respective genus and family; and 3) the main pharmacological properties related to inhibition of toxic and enzymatic activities of snake venoms and isolated toxins.
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Soares et al. (2004) studied this question.
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