Ethnobotany is the study of the interaction of human beings with plants and the way these plants are used, such a study allows a better understanding of the man-vegetation relationship, in addition to providing the collection of information on the form of acquisition, management and use of plants species. With the pandemic caused by COVID-19, people looked for ways to prevent and treat the symptoms caused by it, also using medicinal species as home remedies. In this way, the objective was to carry out an ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used by the population of Carolina, MA for different diseases, their preparation forms, parts used, forms of acquisition and justifications for use, also highlighting the prevention and treatment therapies of COVID-19, its justifications and influential sources. The study consisted of a quali-quantitative, exploratory research carried out along the lines of a case study, carried out in the city of Carolina, MA, where two questionnaires were applied to 120 residents of the city. The results showed that 91.66% of the people claimed to use medicinal plants for various illnesses, mainly to treat the flu and as a tranquilizer, used in the form of teas from the leaves of plants harvested in their own backyard, corroborating with other studies cited in this work. In total, 100 different species distributed in 48 botanical families were cited, with the highest occurrence attributed to Lippia alba (lemongrass) of the Verbenaceae family with 12.30% of citations. Of the research participants, 56.63% declared that they use medicinal plants only for prevention, 12.05% used it only for treatment and 31.32% of participants used it for both prevention and treatment of COVID-19. The species with the highest percentages of citations, used in prevention, treatment and both cases of COVID-19 were Peumus boldus (boldo), Citrus limon (lemon), Allium sativum (garlic), Curcuma longa (saffron). These results show that the population used several medicinal species, with emphasis on Lippia alba and Peumus boldus, for different illnesses, with emphasis on preventing and treating the symptoms of COVID-19. However, the literature reports several properties regarding the symptoms caused by it.
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