Brazil has a long tradition of popular medicine in its different geographical areas (Amazonas, highlands and coast) and different cultural groups (Aruak, Tupi, Guarani). Recently the documentation of plants used in traditional medicine has been organized in Maceió, Brazil, but pharmacological investigations of these plants have been limited so far. High-level chemical research on natural products is developing quickly in the Federal Universities, but it is only seldom centred on medicinal plants. An exception is constituted by the Institute of Antibiotics of the University of Pernambuco where a multi-year programme on the chemistry of plants with pharmacological properties has been developed. Much interest is being shown in these studies, and the results should be coordinated and developed further.