Availability of herbal medicines and medicinal plants in the primary health facilities of the state of Sao Paulo, Southeast Brazil: results from the National Program for Access and Quality Improvement in Primary Care

This study aims to describe the availability of herbal medicines and medicinal plants in the primary care facilities in the state of Sao Paulo, Southeast Brazil, from the results of the first cycle of the National Program for Access and Quality Improvement in Primary Care (PMAQ). The PMAQ uses a national cross-sectional multi-center design, with data from 4,249 health facilities distributed among 645 municipalities of the state of Sao Paulo. Of these facilities, 467 (11%) had herbal medicines and/or medicinal plants. Among the 645 municipalities, 104 (16.1%) had at least one health facility that provided these drugs. We observed that the availability of herbal medicines is greater in larger cities with better social and economic conditions. Furthermore, we found that use of industrialized herbal medicines prevailed over that of vegetal drugs or compounded herbal medicines.