Medicinal plants are well-known natural sources of remedies, used in the treatment of innumerable diseases since antiquity. Plants are invaluable sources of pharmaceutical products and Brazil has supplied an incredible array of medicinal plants that has drawn the attention of ethnopharmacologists around the world. Many plants from various Brazilian biomes, such as the Cerrado (savannah-like), the Atlantic (uplands) and the Amazon (lowlands) rain-forests, have been used as natural medicines by the local population in the treatment of tropical diseases, including leishmaniasis, malaria, schistosomiasis, fungal and bacterial infections (Alves et al., 2000; Duarte et al., 2005).