title: Investigation of urban ethnoveterinary in three veterinary clinics at east zone of São Paulo city, Brazil.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Urban Ethnoveterinary should be further explored because of its value as it resists conventional medical care. In addition, the comparison between the resources used by Ethnoveterinary and Ethnopharmacology should be investigated in depth, increasing the availability of new bioactive potential in human and veterinary medicines. This project aimed to determine whether plants are used in the health care of dogs and/or cats in urban area and to compare its uses with other ethnoveterinary and ethnopharmacological data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three veterinary clinics from east area of São Paulo city were selected, in order to record the offering of plants to pets by their owners. Individual interviews were conducted from May to November 2012 and consisted of application of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. A literature search was performed to compare our findings with other ethnopharmacological and ethnoveterinarian data from the literature.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 273 people were interviewed and 46 (16.84%) of them utilize medicinal plants for their pets. Most plant species are exclusively home grown (57.9%). The plants most cited were Plectranthus barbatus Andrews, Matricaria chamomilla L. and Foeniculum vulgare Mill. The most frequent route of administration, part utilized and mode of preparation was oral (80.35%), leaves (89.47%) and infusion (61.90%), respectively. From 19 cited plants, 14 (73.7%) are mentioned in ethnoveterinary literature, whereas 11 (57.9%) are used for the same purposes. All plants reported in our study have at least one common use with ethnopharmacology.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The survey provided evidence of ethnoveterinary use of medicinal plants for dogs and/or cats in urban area of São Paulo, complementarily with the official veterinary, and showed that the plants used in pets are also used in humans with the same purposes and routes of administration, as well as in other animals.
authors.affiliation: Center for Ethnobotanical and Ethnopharmacological Studies-Institute of Environmental Sciences, Chemical and Pharmaceutical, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil; Departament of Psychobiology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil. Electronic address: luna.raquel@gmail.com.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Antonio
authors.affiliation: Center for Ethnobotanical and Ethnopharmacological Studies-Institute of Environmental Sciences, Chemical and Pharmaceutical, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.affiliation: Universidade Taubaté, Brazil.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Furlan
authors.affiliation: Universidade Paulista, Brazil.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Pedro
authors.affiliation: Center for Ethnobotanical and Ethnopharmacological Studies-Institute of Environmental Sciences, Chemical and Pharmaceutical, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cassas
authors.affiliation: Herbário Municipal (PMSP)-Prefeitura do Município de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.affiliation: Center for Ethnobotanical and Ethnopharmacological Studies-Institute of Environmental Sciences, Chemical and Pharmaceutical, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D002415:Cats; D004285:Dogs; D020834:Ethnopharmacology; D005260:Female; D006762:Hospitals, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D019155:Veterinary Drugs
chemical_list: D019155:Veterinary Drugs
keywords: Cats; Dogs; Domestic animals; Ethnopharmacology; Ethnoveterinary; Medicinal plants