Brito-Junior, Valdir Moura ， Albuquerque, Ulysses Paulino
2025-03-01 ECONOMIC BOTANY 2025 79(卷), 1(期), (65-78页)
Big Data has been widely used on the internet to understand the relationship between people and biodiversity, giving rise to a new area of knowledge: Conservation culturomics. In this study, we applied this approach to assess interest in medicinal plants from the Caatinga. Our results revealed that factors such as endemism and the pharmaceutical industry's use of medicinal plants do not increase public interest in these species. However, the number of medicinal uses attributed to plants positively influences interest in the species. This result is pioneering as it reveals factors that can influence interest in useful plants in digital media. Considering that this is the first study to integrate theoretical frameworks and evidence from ethnobotanical research to understand people's behavior towards biodiversity on the internet, our findings provide important insights for guiding future studies. In an increasingly globalized and hyperconnected world, it is crucial to understand interactions with the natural environment from a multifaceted perspective.