SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING OF Matricaria recutita L. (Chamomile)

Matricaria recutita L. (chamomile) is a plant belonging to the family Asteraceae which is widely used in popular medicine owing to their various biological applications such as, for example, antidiarrheal activity, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, gastroprotective, antibacterial, between others. The aim of this study was to conduct a scientific and technological exploration of Matricaria recutita plant popularly known as chamomile. The scientific prospection was performed researching all scientific articles published up to june 2015 in databases PubMed, Web of Science (TM), Scopus and Scielo using separately in the descriptor scientific name and common name of the plant, and observing the year of publication. Already the technological prospecting was performed in the databases USPTO, EPO, WIPO and INPI selecting patents that had the scientific name or common name of the plant in the title and/or summary, observing the classification, the year and the countries of deposits. Thus, it was found that in articles of scientific databases and banks of patent applications, published works mainly involve the popular name of the species when compared to the scientific name, these results may be explained by the fact that the plant be known worldwide as chamomile. Furthermore, said prospecting had as a result the use of the plant in various purposes such as: pharmaceutical formulations, food products and industrial applications in the cosmetics area. Thus, the plant has great relevance in the areas of science and technology.